The Visitor
by kman134
Summary: A human crash lands on Third-Earth and allies himself with the Thundercats to protect secret documents from an evil empire.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Thundercats. Just the OC's and the plot.**

**Chapter 1:**

**The Arrival**

It was a beautiful night on Third-Earth. Lion-o and his friends were sitting by the bonfire, relaxing from a long day of dealing with Mumm-ra's goons. Lion-o was sitting in the middle beside Pumyra and Panthro. Tygra, like always, was sitting beside Cheetara with his right arm over her shoulder, which irritated Lion-o.

"So, has anyone seen Wilykit and Wilykat?" Asked Tygra; breaking the silence around the camp.

Panthro crossed his arms and sighed. He replied with annoyance in his voice, "Eh, those two cubs are playing in the forest. They'll be back before the fire goes out."

They weren't worried because they knew the cubs were about to take care of themselves. They were able to survive in the slums of Thundera and they were able to survive in the forest but they did felt a little bit of concern. "If they don't come back, we'll have to look for them," Lion-o thought.

In the forest, the cubs were playing tag and Wilykat was it. They were, at least, a mile away from the camp. Wilykit tried to run from her brother but he was too fast for her. He tackled her and both of them laughed.

"Haha, you're it, Kit!" Wilykat taunted her sister. "Now you have to try and catch me!"

Wilykit pouted and shouted, "No fair! You cheated, Kat!" Her hand molded into fists and placed them down, beside her waists. She continued, "I could've won if you hadn't cheated!"

As they argued, a ball of fire appeared in the sky and crashed to the ground a-mile-away from where the twins were. The Sound scared the two, causing them to become curious and see what it was. They stood behind a bush and what they saw surprised them. Eyes opened, it was an amazing, yet terrifying, thing. It was a purple and metallic, shaped like a 12-pointed-star. This day was getting weird, even for the Thundercats. Knowing it wasn't from this world, the cubs kept their distance but Wilykat was too eager to resist. He ran up to get a closer look.

"Kat, what're you doing! We don't know what it is or what it might do!" exclaimed Wilykit, running to her brother and hoping nothing dangerous would happen. She stood beside her brother, staring at the metal object. Kat was amazed by it while Kit was terrified of it.

"Wow, what do you think it is Kit?" He looked at his sister with his eyes widened in amazement.

"I don't know, Kat but I think we shouldn't get close to it," replied Kit in a scared tone of voice with her arms around Kat's right arm. "Maybe we should get the others."

Wilykat frowned and said to his sister, "And let them have all the fun! Kit, this thing could be filled with all sort of treasure! Maybe not as much treasure as El-Dara but it would be enough treasure to make us rich!"

"But what if it isn't treasure but some sort of egg to a hideous monster!" Wilykit argued with her brother until he dared her to touch it.

"Come on, kit, touch and see if it's dangerous or not. If it cracks open and tentacles pop out, then it's dangerous but nothing happens, then it's not dangerous."

Wilykit got close to it, shaking as she extended her index finger and touched the purple glass-like frame. It was hot but not hot enough to burn her finger. Nothing happened, which filled Kit with relief but that didn't last long. Steam appeared from below the frame and, slowly, it opened. Kit jumped back, away from it and stood beside her brother. Fear filled the cubs and as they stood, a man-shaped figure, wearing a black, leather jumpsuit with a patch stitched to the left side of its chest and a black helmet with a camera-like device on its left side, walked out of its ship and stood, stoically. The cubs held each other, shaking in fear. The figure looked down, noticing the twins and as it looked at them, it spoke in a language that was common but sounded cybernetic: " Tuzu rén de shēngmìng xíngshì, shìtú gōutōng"

It reached out to them, trying to touch to greet them. The Wilys were scared and so they ran back to the camp with such speed.

"Run Kit!" Wilykat shrieked. He held his sister's hand, running and telling her not to look back. Sweat was on their brows from running and they continued to run without stopping for a breather.

The cubs ran back to camp. Their shrieks of terror caught the attention of the older cats. They ran behind Lion-o, tugging his shirt and crying in fear.

The worried lion looked at the twins and asked with such concern, "Kit, Kat, what's wrong! Did you get hurt!"

Heavily breathing, they weren't able to speak for a while. Kit spoke as sweat fell from her face, "W-we were playing tag in the woods when we saw something fall from the sky! We went to see what it was but when we got there, we didn't know what we were seeing!" Her brother finally spoke and like his sister, he had trouble talking. He continued her explanation, "Y-yeah, It was a meteor shaped like a 12-pointed-star! I dared Kit to touch it but when she did, something came out of it! It was shaped like a man dressed in a black suit! It spoke in a weird language and reached out to us! I think it wanted to hurt us!"

What the cubs said shocked Lion-o and scared the other older cats, except for Tigra and Panthro.

"Are you sure you two didn't just imagine the whole thing?" Tygra, cynically, responded.

"Tygra, we're telling the truth! You believe us, right Lion-o!" cried Kit, looking up at their king. "You got to believe us, please! We can take you to where it landed!"

The lion king saw they were telling the truth because he saw the honesty in their eyes. He turned around, facing the cubs, and placed his hands on their shoulders. Kit's face blushed, feeling the king's touch on her right shoulder.

"Take us to where you saw this meteor. We'll deal with whatever tried to attack you."

The Wilys smiled, knowing that Lion-o would believe them. They hugged him and led the way. The others got up with Panthro shaking his head and sighed with "oh, great." Tygra shrugged and shook his head with "Oh, you got to be kidding me."

As they followed the cubs, Lion-o was behind the Wilys while the others were behind him. Pumyra, on the other hand, walked beside him. Wilykit looked behind to see Pumyra close to Lion-o, which made her a little angry. 20-minutes-later, the cubs brought the older cats to the crash site.

Jaw dropped, Tygra rubbed his eyes and pinched himself to see if he was dreaming but no such luck. The cubs were right, except for one thing: There was sign of the dark figure. Lion-o got close to it. He crouched down and looked inside the cockpit. Amazed at seeing the technology inside, he wanted to get a closer look until Cheetara walked up and grabbed his shoulder.

"Lion-o, I don't think it's a good idea to be looking into something that we don't know of," she responded. Cheetara's hand touching Lion-o's shoulder made him blush a little. "Maybe we should leave it alone."

"Maybe you're right. Maybe we should leave it alone. Hey, I'm not hearing anything from you guys."

Lion-o and Cheetara turned their heads facing the others; noticing the nervous stares they were showing. They turned around to the direction the others were staring and saw the dark figure, standing before them like a statue. Lion-o fell to the ground while Cheetara, slowly, backed away. Lion-o stood up off the ground and pulled out the Sword of Omens out of the Claw Shield. Cheetara took out her staff and was a defensive pose. The others pulled out their weapons as well and stood in defense. The dark figure saw this as a threat and, like the others, defended himself by making his flat like swords and with a pose similar to a tiger.

To be concluded


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Misunderstandings**

The Thundercats scattered and attacked the dark figure, one by one. Lion-O was the first to attack the dark figure. He swung the Sword of Omens at him but the dark figure dodged it. The dark figure jump kicked him in the face, sending him flying to the ground and sliding on his back. Cheetara strikes the dark figure with her staff, circling around him with lightning speed, but he, merely, blocked her attacks by grabbing her staff and judo flipped her into some bushes, which broke her fall, behind him. The dark figure retains his pose towards the others. Angry at what he did to Cheetara, Tygra cloaked himself and used his fists against the dark figure. Through his helmet, the dark figure changed his vision to inferred to see Tygra's heat signature and began blocking his attacks until he grabs Tygra by his lower, right arm, pulls him closer, and knees him in the abdomen.

Visible, Tygra was on his knees, coughing. He looks up and sees the dark figure in front of him, in which he, sarcastically, exclaims, "Well, if you're going to finish me off, please leave my face unharmed. It took me awhile to look this good."

The dark figure just stood there, tilting his head to the side, curiously looking at the tiger. He turns away from Tygra and ignores him. Tygra, slowly, stood up and used his bolo whip to strike from behind. The dark figure tilts his head, again, dodging the bolo whip as it passes him. He grabs it at the end of the three diamond-shaped objects, pulls the whip out of Tygra's hands, and throws it to the ground.

Tygra was shocked, looking at the back of the dark figure's head with his eyes wide and said, trembling, "W-what are you?" It was shocking for Tygra because no one was able to block his bolo whip.

No response. He just walked away. Panthro was up next, standing in front of the dark figure the dark figure with his arms crossed and a grin on his face.

"Now, where do you think you're going," said Panthro, rhetorically. He held his palms flat like a blade, doing the same martial art pose like the dark figure. "I hope you're tough enough to deal with me?"

While Panthro dealt with the dark figure, Cheetara grabbed Tygra, carry him princess-style, and brought him into the forest where the others were. She ran back and grabbed Lion-O, carrying him in the same style as Tygra.

Panthro and the dark figure walked in a circle, keeping an eye on each other. The dark figure was in a pose similar to a drunken monkey. He charges at Panthro but Panthro dodges and rolls to the left. He gets up and swings his nunchucks. The dark figure dodges. Left and right; up and down, the dark figure dodges Pathros' attacks and strikes with a 540 kick but Panthro dodges it by leaning back.

"Now, Pumyra!" Panthro shouted, walking backwards, away from the dark figure.

Pumyra jumped out of a tree, leaping into the air and firing arrow-shaped pellets from her wrist-mounted crossbow at the dark figure. She fired 50 pellets at the dark figure. He blocks it but that proved to be useless as the pellets started piercing through his suit, leaving holes on his sleeves. He started pressing buttons on his left wrist and produced a blue, oval-shaped shield, blocking her attacks.

Feet on the ground, she expressed anger towards the dark figure. She pulled out her bola and starting swirling it around. She charged and threw it between his ankles but he somersaulted, backwards, dodging her attack. Oblivious that it was a trap, Panthro grabs the dark figure and prevented him from escaping. The dark figure began to struggle and, eventually, elbowed Panthro in the abdomen, causing him to release him and fall to the ground, feeling such pain.

Next, it was the Wilys. Kat pounced and started biting at the dark figures helmet while Kit started playing her flute; both attacks were proven useless. He pries Wilykat off his helmet and grabs Wilykit, holding them by the back of fabric of their clothes, and placing them on some bushes—the same ones Cheetara was thrown into—with ease. He looks at them, trying to say something to them but only static came out. He then says to them in a different language than before: "Anata wa jibun, jishin, chisana mono o kizutsukeru mae ni koko ni taizai." He walks away but looks back to see the cubs, noticing the confused look they were giving him. It wasn't in his nature to hurt children.

Lion-o and Tygra were brought behind a group of trees that stood in front of the dark figure's ship. Lion-o was leaning against a tree, facing his brother while pain coursed through his face. He sees Tygra, rubbing his abdomen with his right arm, calming the pain that was coursing through his waist.

"Gods, there's no stopping this guy," said Tygra, looking at the dark figure as he was now fighting Panthro. He looks at Lion-o, noticing the pain he was feeling. "He really did a number on you, huh, bro?"

"Same with you," they both laughed, softly. However, they stopped laughing after they felt the stings of the pain in their body.

Pumyra left to attend to the others' wounds. She sat on her knees, examining the lion's face. She felt her heart racing from touching Lion-O's face but felt a surge of rage towards the dark figure. She said to her king with a worried look in her amber eyes, "Are you hurt anywhere else?"

"No, just my face; it's nothing important but you should take a look at Tygra's wounds," Lion-O replied. Pumyra removed her hands from Lion-O's face and walked over to Tygra, examining his abdomen.

She pressed the thumb of her right hand at his sides. "Ow!" was his response. It felt like he was hit in the stomach by a brick. He says to her while in pain, "How serious is it?"

"Don't worry, it's just a mild wound; it's nothing serious but you shouldn't be moving right now," Pumyra replied. She looks at Lion-O and says with a stern look, "Same goes to you; your majesty."

Lion-O, slowly, got up off the ground. The Sword of Omens was still in his hands. It took what little energy he had left just to stand up. He turned and saw Panthro, battered and worn out, still fighting the dark figure. The dark figure, on the other hand, just stood there doing nothing.

"Whiskers, Panthro's not going to hang in that long," Lion-O thought. As Lion-O was about to go over and aid his general, Cheetara stopped him, placing her left hand on his right shoulder. The feel of her hand made him blush a little.

"Lion-O, before you do anything you might regret, look, closely, at what's going on," Cheetara contended. His blue eyes looked into her red eyes, both seeing the trust that appeared. He nodded and did what she said. Lion-O observed the dark figure's moves and noticed something odd about them. He sees Panthro throwing the next punch with his right, mechanical fist but his attack was blocked and counterattacked with a punch to the stomach, sending the general falling to the ground. "Now, do you see what's happening?"

He turns to her and the others and commented to what Cheetara said with his blue eyes wide open in realization, "I see what you're saying, Cheetara. He's not attacking us; he's defending himself against us. We attacked him first and he reacted in self-defense. To him, we're the enemies."

Lion-O ran, entering the battle while brother shouts out "Don't do anything stupid!" behind him. Lion-O ran in front of the dark figure while Panthro was lying on the ground, feeling like every bone in his body was shattered into dust. As Lion-O stood, the dark figure reverts to his defensive pose until the lion king started reasoning with it.

He places the Sword of Omens back into his claw shield "Look, we are not your enemy. We come in peace. I know our response may have seemed hostile to you but I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive us for this misunderstanding. What do you say?"

The young lion reaches out his left hand, wanting to shake the dark figure's hand as a sign of peace. The dark figure responds to his gesture. He touches the two, circular disks on the sides of his helmets, turning them around and pressing them like a button. Lion-O watched as steam came out of the dark figure's helmet, removing it and surprised at what was underneath.

He places his helmet under his left armpit and, finally, speaks to the lion king as he shakes his hand, "I am glad to put this misunderstanding behind us. I am sorry for the damage I inflicted on you."

He didn't have fur on his face but only on his head: long, black hair that reached down to his neck. He had pink skin with thick eyebrows. He had an unusual eyecolor: green

Lion-O introduced himself and his subjects to their new found friend: "I'm Lion-O, Lord of the Thundercats. Behind me is my general, Panthro, and over by the trees are my cleric, Cheetara, my brother, Tygra, and my warrior, Pumyra. And, lastly, the cubs you placed in those bushes are the Wilys: Kit and Kat."

The cubs ran behind their king, holding the fabric of his pants while looking at the person they were fighting. The others appeared, as well. Tygra and Cheetara were helping Panthro up while Pumyra stood next to her king with her arms crossed.

The dark figure introduced himself to Lion-O and the others. He closed his legs together and salutes with his right: "Elijah Robertson, captain of the Armed Forces of the Terran Federation; Generation 2 super-soldier."

He places his right hand down and looks at the cubs. They were amazed that he was speaking a language they understood.

"You were speaking in a different language. How can you be speaking in our language?" asked Wilykat.

Elijah's raised his left eyebrows and explained to the young cub. He crouched down and explained: "Well, you see, this helmet I'm holding acts as a universal translator. It can translate any word I say into a language better understood by another human or another species. However, it seems that my helmet must've gotten damage from impact. Besides, I don't even need a universal translator. I'm a polyglot; I can speak several languages, human or other."

As he stood up, Elijah noticed the hostile look Pumyra was giving him, causing him to tilt his head in curiosity. Lion-O broke the tension and invited their new friend over to their tent, which shocked the others.

"I am honored that you would invite me to your campsite but I must do something here, first," Elijah replied. He walks to his ship and removes something from its compartment. He continued without turning away from the inside of his ship. "I'll be right with, just give me a few minutes."

Lion-O nodded with an "okay" and headed back to their campsite with his subjects following him. 15-minutes-later, the Thundercats were waiting for Elijah around a dying fire. They were sitting in the same spots as before, except for Panthro whom was now sleeping in the Thundertank. The Wilys were now sitting beside Lion-O with Kat sitting on the right and Kit sitting on the left. Pumyra was applying ointment to Tygra's abdomen, telling Cheetara to hold him still while she bandaged him. As she finished, she told Tygra that it was now okay for him to put his shirt back on. After Tygra, she walked over to Lion-O and started patching his face. Seeing the older female touching Lion-O's face made Kit fluster, wrapping her arms around Lion-Os' and giving Pumyra and stern look. Pumyra saw Wilykit's look and laughed on the inside, thinking it was cute.

Feeling tired, Lion-O closed his eyes to rest but kept his senses sharp to Elijah's presence. He, quickly, opened his eyes, hearing movement in the woods.

"Well, it's good that you finally showed up, Elijah," said Lion-O, sensing his presence as he walked up behind him. "So what was it you were looking for in your ship?"

Elijah walked around and sat in and eastern side of their bonfire; Cheetara and Tygra were sitting in the north, and Lion-O, the cubs, and Pumyra were sitting in the south. In his hands was a spherical, metal device, covered in glowing, blue lines. He looked at Lion-O, giving him a stoic expression, noticing the lion looking at what he was holding.

He stated "that's classified" to Lion-O's question and turned his head towards the cubs, noticing them staring at him with a frightened expression. He turned his head and looked at Tygra, noticing the judgmental stare he was making towards him. It wasn't just Tygra, Pumyra made the same kind of glare. Cheetara, on the other hand, gave a different look. In her eyes were the eyes of understanding.

"Your companions seem uncomfortable around me and I don't blame them," He turns to Lion-O with his right eyebrow. "Our first encounter wasn't so smooth and, instead of peace and hospitality, it led to a brawl."

Tygra smiled and remarked, "Yeah, those were some impressive moves you used."

"Indeed, my martial arts skills were known throughout the Academy as being impressive but, also, lethal. That's why I only inflicted minimum casualties onto you," Elijah added, looking down at the device he held in his hands and giving a sad grin.

"Huh, so what would you consider maximum casualties?" asked Tygra.

"Well, if I inflicted maximum casualties on you, then we wouldn't be having this conversation," Elijah explained, producing a grin on his face.

It was close to midnight; Lion-O stood up and stretched, cracking his neck and other joints. "Man, it's getting late. Well, I think it's time for us to get some sleep. Agree?"

They' all nodded and headed into the Thundertank. Lion-O stopped and spoke to Elijah while he was behind the lion king.

"So, Elijah, we should, probably, assign you a room since you'll be staying-" Lion-O turned around and noticed Elijah was nowhere to be seen, that is, until he heard sounds of boots rubbing against metal. He walked over to the hood of the tank and saw Elijah, climbing up on the hood and sitting down with his legs, facing the trees and began meditating.

Lion-O's eyes widened in curiosity; scratching the back of his head with his left hand and raising his right eyebrow. He shrugs his shoulders and walks back into the Thundertank. Lion-O was in his room, lying in his bunk with Snarf lying on his stomach.

Door opening, Wilykit walks tip-toes into Lion-O's room. She stood beside his bed and wakes the sleeping king. Eyes opened, he looks at Kit and says in a drowsy tone of voice, "Kit, what are you doing in my room?"

"I-I couldn't sleep because Kat kept kicking my leg. Lion-O, would it be okay if sleep with you?" said Kit, whispering so to not wake Snarf.

Lion-O was too tired to think. So he just said "sure" and let her sleep beside him. Wilykit got under the covers and slept beside Lion-O. However, as Lion-O fell fast asleep, Kit leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. She made a sly grin and thought in her head: "Wilykit-1; Pumyra-0" and went back to sleep, cuddling without waking the sleeping lion.

Elijah began meditating, holding the metal sphere in his hands, trying to see visions of enlightenment and of peace, but, throughout his life as a soldier, there was no peace and enlightenment, only war and destruction.

Flashback:

He was on board the Achilles, the military station in the Alpha Centuari. It had a cylinder shape with a circling the middle. On the top and bottom were ionic cannons on each, four sides. Elijah walks down a metal corridor and enter a room through an automatic sliding door. In the room, there was a large, circular table with, at least, twelve seats and in front of the seats were ashtrays. Sitting were seven people, sitting down and sharing conversations with one another.

As Elijah walks in, he salutes and addresses the person sitting in the north side of the table as "general" and sits down, facing his superior. General Salveas Amon was his name and was the most strict and militaristic military officer throughout the Federation. He was a man who appears in his 60s. He had short, black hair cut in a high and tight style. His eyes were a shade of brown, indicating that he's 'normal,' and had gray sideburns.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" asked Elijah.

"Indeed, captain. I called you and your team here to discuss some...important matters," the general replied. He spoke with a light, French accent. "Do you remember the Ulysses?"

Elijah raised his right eyebrow. He hadn't heard that name since he was in history class at the Academy, "Yes, it was a military vessel built to protect special cargo from any hostile threat but, for the past 200 years, it's been lost to us."

"So what does this history lesson have to do with anything?" asked the man sitting next to Elijah.

The general placed the cigar he held in his hand in the ashtray in front of him and displayed a serious look. He says to him, "Because, Maximilian, it was recently sighted in the Aldoran Star System. It was sighted by asteroid miners while they were mining for Tiberium."

Everyone round started dropping their jaws, shocked at what they were hearing. Maximilian and Elijah looked at each other in amazement and looked back at the general. General Ammon leaned forward with elbows on the table, his left hand molded into a fist, and his right hand on his left with his chin over it.

"Elijah, I summoned you and your unit for a mission. I want you and your unit to investigate what went down on the Ulysses and recover what they were protecting."

"What!" both Elijah and Max shouted in unison.

"Yes and if you find any archives that could tell you about the ships disappearance, bring that too, but if you find the crew, or their descendents, bring them here, as well."

"Wait. Why do you want us to do this mission?" Max asked, rubbing the back of his head, tracing his fingers in his blonde, spiky hair.

The general sighed, relieving the stress in his body. His old eyes stared at Elijah and answered the lieutenant's question. He explained to the them and the others, "It's because, over the past two centuries, there have been rumors, stories, of the Ulysses being haunted by the spirits of the crew. These rumors made many of our troops feel uncomfortable from hearing the name. It's the reason why many of our academy students started having nightmares from the teachings of the ship but you and your team have went through worse things to be scared by stories. That's why I chose you for this mission."

There was no response. Everyone was silent until Elijah broke the silence. He stood up and saluted to the generals' offer. He placed his hand down and replied, "We won't let you down, sir."

2-hours-later, he walks into the stations' hangar, walking towards his ship, the Prometheus. Waiting for him was his unit. The Dark Angels is what they called themselves, consisting of 20 soldiers; seven from the meeting and thirteen others. They each formed a line at the entrance, saluting the captain as he enters his ship but that's when another memory appeared, replacing the previous one he was seeing.

Elijah was on board the Ulysses, covered in blood and holding a silver Glock 44 in his right hand. He hands started to shake, hearing loud roars and screams coming from the dark hallways. He was in the bridge, hearing the ship's computer, telling everyone in a feminine voice that the ship's self-destruct sequence had been activated: "Attention, you have 40 seconds 'til the ship self-destructs. 39, 38, 37, 36..."

Elijah ran to the ship's hangar where the rest of his unit was at but stopped when he spotted Joshua, his second lieutenant. He was running towards Elijah from the hallways, holding a sphere-shaped object in his hands with a towel wrapped around it.

"Captain, I got it! I got the...!" he stopped, moving slowly as his speed decreased. Stopping, Joshua fell; face first, to the ground. A dagger attached to a chain pierced through his back, losing lots of blood. The chain was pulled, causing the dagger to return into the dark. Horrified, Elijah drops his gun and runs over to save his fallen soldier. He grabs Joshua, carrying his second lieutenant over his left shoulder with his left arm holding him by the waist and holding the towel-covered object under his right armpit.

Elijah ran to the hangar as fast as he could, feeling the weight of the two things he was carrying.

Max and two others were in front of the ship, standing guard from whatever hostile threat lurked. Like Elijah, their uniforms were covered in blood and rips, appearing as if they were in battle.

"Look, it's the captain!" shouted private Sugisaki, pointing as Elijah ran to the ship. They were relieved that he survived. As Elijah got on board, Max continued speaking, watching Elijah as he carried Joshua's body, "Cap, what happened!"

Max heard the roars and ordered the two back into the ship. Elijah placed Joshua in sick bay, shouting to the others, "We need a medic in here!"

The ship takes off, leaving the hangar through the force field and leaving as the Ulysses explodes behind them. Elijah was sitting in the bridge, holding and looking at the towel-covered object but he looked up and saw Johnathan, one of his privates, standing in front of him and giving him a stern look.

He clinched his fists and whispers, "You killed him" in which, Elijah replies, "Excuse me?" before Johnathan sucker punches him in the face.

Two privates intervened, grabbing the angry soldier by the arms and pulling him away from the captain. Johnathan struggled, trying to break free so he could continue beating his superior.

The private holding his left arm, Ricardo, looks at Johnathan and says to him, "Johnathan, what the hell are you doing? This is subordination."

Johnathan wasn't listening but just continued struggling. Ricardo looks into his eyes and saw nothing but rage.

"You did this! Because of you, Joshua is dead! He was our brother and you let him die! You sent him to find that...that thing and it cost him his life! It was his first mission and now he's dead, our brother is dead!" Joshua scolded his captain.

Elijah didn't say anything; he just kept rubbing his chin. "Take the private away and lock him in his quarters. Let him out only when he calms down," Elijah ordered. His two privates took Johnathan away, hearing him roar, blaming him on Joshua's death. Elijah stood up and was preparing to head back to his quarters. Monique, his corporal, was standing behind him. She placed her right hand on his shoulder and said to him, "Capitaine, it is not your fault. You're not responsible for this."

He didn't say anything. He walks away, removing her hand from his shoulder. Elijah sat on his bed, looking at the object he was still holding. He started talking to it, "It's all because of you that one of my brothers is dead. What is so god damn important about you that this would happen?"

He opens it and sees it for what it really was; a metal orb with glowing, blue lines around it.

His eyes snap open, noticing that he was on top of the hood of the Thundertank. Elijah looks down and sees he's still holding the orb in his lap. Tears running down from his eyes, he begins to cry, placing his hands on his face and sobs. This was going to be a long night.

To be concluded.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: New Friendships & Understandings**

It was morning; the sun's light was shining in Lion-O's room through a porthole and beaming at his face. He wakes up but still felt tired from not getting enough sleep. It was going to be a rough day since Lion-O and the other Thundercats were going to have a guest; a guest not from their world. As he pulled himself up, he notices a sleeping Wilykit beside him. He remembers her request for wanting to sleep beside him.

He thought she looked cute when she was sleeping. Smiling, he places his hand on her head and, gently, rubs her scalp.

"Time to wake up, Kit, we've got a big day ahead of us," he whispers to her, smiling after hearing Kit groan.

Kit lifted herself up after lying on her stomach, sat with her legs crossed, and started rubbing her eyes. Her face turned red from seeing the king's smile.

She asks Lion-O in a tired voice, "Lion-O, is Elijah going to be staying with us, now?"

"Of course, he doesn't have anywhere else to go. Besides, I think he could teach us things that could help us against Mumm-Ra," Lion-O replied, patting Kit on the head and helping her out of his bed. "And don't worry, maybe, if we get to know him, he might turn out to be a good person."

Lion-O left his with Kit walking beside him, snatching his hand and clutching it in an affectionate way. Snarf woke up and followed the two as they walked into the control room. Cheetara and Tygra were watching the monitors for any sign of Mumm-Ra's generals. Kat was looking through his sack for his stash of candy fruit, and Pumyra was doing maintenance on her crossbow. Panthro was nowhere to be seen. He was still sleeping off the pain from being beaten by Elijah.

Wilykit released her hand from Lion-O's and sat next to her brother. Lion-O climbed up the latter and walked towards Tygra and Cheetara. He stood between the chairs they were sitting in and starts talking to his brother.

"So, any sign of the lizards?" Asked Lion-O; having Snarf sitting on his right shoulder.

"No, not yet, but I notice our 'guest' is still on the tank's hood," said Tygra. Lion-O noticed his brother staring at a monitor focused on Elijah.

Like a statue, Elijah has stayed in the same position and the only thing that's changed is the tear stains on his face.

"Wow, how long has he been sitting there?" asked Lion-O, amazed at Elijah's stillness.

"Not sure, probably all night," Cheetara answered her king, looking directly at him. "Do you think we should bring him down?"

Lion-O looks at Cheetara but looks away as his face began to fluster. Tygra but into their conversation and says while leaning back and placing his hands behind his back, "Why should we? It doesn't look like he wants to be disturbed."

Tygra was taking joy out of seeing Elijah baking under the sun. The three noticed the sweat pouring out of him and the tan he was getting. This was the part where Tygra's conscience kicked in. He gets up out of his chair and says "okay, let's get him down before he bursts into flames, little brother" with a calm demeanor. He and Lion-O climbs down and walks out but Wilykat tags along since he remembered that he ate the last of his candy fruit. It was a hot day outside. Lion-O, Tygra, and Wilykat stood in front of the Thundertank, looking up and staring at Elijah for at least 2 minutes.

Three climbed up on the hood; Lion-O and Tygra were standing on Elijah's sides while Kat stood in front of him, making faces to see any reaction.

"Hello, anybody home! Third-Earth to Elijah, we are here to take inside!" Asked Wilykat; waving his hand in front of Elijah's face. As Wilykat placed his hand down, Elijah's eyes, suddenly, opened, scaring the cub in front of him to fall on his bottom.

"Yes, I am home. Now, what do you want!" Elijah demanded, wanting to know why he was disturbed from his meditation. "Have you come here because you' all were worried about me being in the sun?"

Elijah stood up but felt pain coursing through his left leg. He starts shaking it, waking it up from sitting on it. Stretching and popping his joints, Elijah continues, "Well, if you insist on bringing me inside your armored vehicle, then I happily accept."

"Okay, and don't worry, Elijah, I'll make sure you'll get a warm welcome from the others," replied Lion-O, showing a warm smile to his new friend.

Walking to the control room, Lion-O notices that only Elijah's face was sweating and not his entire body, which made him curious. He became even more curious from the patches on the upper torso of Elijah's suit. Lion-O asks while walking into the control room, "Elijah, how are you only sweating on your face and not the other parts of your body?"

He looks at Lion-O and explains it to him with a straight face: "Well, you see, the suit I am wearing, the stillsuit, was design by my people's scientists to preserve the moisture in my body if I, or anyone else, was to survive on any desert planet that lacked any source of water. It absorbs and recycles the moisture in my body, whether it's sweat or urine, and stores it in the patches on my upper torso. On inside of my collar, there is a plastic tube that I use to drink the moisture out of the patches."

"Ewww, you drink your own moisture? That's disgusting!" Kat remarked.

"It's all beneficial because I'm human and as a human being, my people must find any way to survive in harsh environments!" Elijah countered. "Besides, the suit breathes, nicely."

Tygra and Wilykat were disgusted to be around Elijah but Lion-O, on the other hand, was fascinated by him and the technology he possessed. Elijah was intrigued by the technology of the Thundertank, looking at how big it was on the inside and, yet, how small it was on the inside. "Amazing, I'm fascinated at how the size of this Thundertank defies the laws of physics. What do you use, some sort of Dimensional Module to rearrange the atmospheric pressure to make it appear, internally, larger?" Elijah acknowledged, placing his arms behind his back and looked around.

The words that came out Elijah's mouth were confusing to Tygra, raising his right eyebrow and exclaimed "what?" while looking at the human.

Elijah smirked, causing Tygra to give him the stink-eye.

"Your friend, here, seems to be unfamiliar to what a dimensional module is," Elijah commented, looking directly at Lion-O.

Lion-O replies with a shrug, "Well, Tygra wasn't that interested in technology. Back when we kids, many of our people viewed technology as a myth, that is, until now."

"So, you two are childhood friends?"

Tygra exclaimed, "We're brothers!"

Well, that was an awkward moment for Elijah. He examines the tiger, then the lion, and says "adopted?" while looking at Lion-O. Lion-O nodded his head as a response to Elijah's question.

Lion-O and Elijah left Wilykat and Tygra and walked to where Pumyra was, continuing their conversation but were interrupted by the puma, herself.

She was sitting down with her back against the wall, looking at the two as they stood in front of her. "You know, Lion-O, you and Elijah could sit down next to me if you like? I would like to hear what you two are talking about," she began in a flirtatious tone of voice. She seemed to have gotten over her anger towards Elijah, knowing he was just defending himself.

They did what she said, seeing it would be rude to object her offer. She leaned in to listen. Lion-O asks, "So what is a Dimensional Module, anyway?"

"It's a device that's able to expand the inside of a ship with a compact appearance. They were, largely, used by cargo ships, delivering goods to other planets or interstellar markets. However, they were, rarely, used by the Terran Armed Forces, installing it in our infantry ships," Elijah explained. "Oh yeah, Lion-O, I've been meaning to ask you, what is the name of your planet?"

"Third Earth," Lion-O answered.

"What a coincidence. My ancestral planet was once called Earth. We also called it Terra, Mondus, Gaia, and Midgard," Elijah added.

"Wow, that is a coincidence," Lion-O stated. "So was it like Third Earth?"

Elijah answered Lion-O's Question while rubbing the back of his head, "No. Well, sort of. There were a few differences, like landscapes, flora, and fauna but there may be some familiar things on this planet, I think? The only things I remember about Earth are from our history."

Once they heard of what Elijah said about his planet, everyone, including Cheetara, listened in. Elijah continues, "You see, 500-years-ago, humanity originated from the planet, Earth. However, by the year 2016, an event known as the 'Great Cataclysm,' which lasted from 2016 to 2019, destroying the entire planet, inside and out, causing mankind to scatter throughout the galaxy, colonizing many worlds. That event was known by us as the 'Great Diaspora of Mankind.'"

Tygra's stink-eye towards Elijah changed, turning from anger to pity. Everyone else started feeling the same way. Elijah made a weak smile, telling everyone that it's alright.

3-hours-later, everyone was in the living quarters, sharing conversations around a circular table when they noticed that Elijah was missing. He was at the crash site of his fallen ship. He remembered that he left something in the front compartment. He was only focusing on the sphere but now, he remembered other things that he forgot to take out.

From the compartment, he took out a brown bag filled with unknown items, and headed back to the Thundertank but before he could return, he did a few...'rewiring' to his ships' engine. He waltz's into the living quarters, saying "Well, I got what I was looking for" and placed his bag on the table. He sat between the cubs, separating them as he sat down.

"So, what's in the bag?" asked Kat.

"Well, I'm so glad you ask," he took out what was in it and presented them to the other Thundercats. "In this sack are things I brought from home."

These were the items he took out: Books, a case full of music chips, a first aid kit, and a communicator wristband. Kat picks up one of the books and reads the title out loud: "The Complete History of the Human Race."

Kit picks up another book and reads the title out loud, as well: "The God-Emperor of Dune" but places the book down after becoming frightened from seeing the image on the cover: An image of a gigantic worm with a human face being worshiped by people dressed in white.

"What's the matter?" Elijah asks Kit.

"N-nothing; it's just the picture on this book scared me a little," Wilykit said, softly, handing Elijah his book.

Elijah let out a small chuckle. He, gingerly, takes the book from Wilykit's hands and gave an amusing smile, patting the kittens' head to show that it's okay.

"'The God-Emperor of Dune,' Now, this was my favorite out of all the other six originals," He says to Kit.

"Originals?"

"Yes, you see, this book is part of a series of books, taking place 21,000 years in the future where my species had scattered across the known universe, forming the Padishah Empire, a quasi-feudal empire that governed over a million worlds. Well, that's the setting of the series," Elijah explained. Kit seemed very interested, smiling and listening to every detail. Elijah continued, "Actually, come to think about it, my people are in the same situation, as well."

Lion-O, as inquisitive as always, asked Wilykat for the book he was holding. Kat handed Elijah's history book to his king, seeing it as boring since it was too long for even him to read. As he opens it, a picture falls out of it and onto his lap. Lion-O picks it up, recognizing who was on it. It was Elijah but with short, combed hair. Elijah saw what Lion-O was holding and, quickly, stood up and snatched it out of his hand. It was personal and didn't want anyone else, but him, to see it. Elijah's eyes glared like fire.

"This picture must never be looked at by others; not even by me, as well!" Elijah snaps.

"Elijah," Kit murmured.

"What!" Elijah roared directly at Kit. Looking around, he started to notice how the others started to react, showing fear and anger. The Wilys huddled in fear, reacting to Elijah's outburst, making him regret what he had down.

This was the side that he didn't want anyone to see. He left the living quarters, muttering to the others, "If you need me, I'll be in my room." He walked down the hall to his assigned room, leaving his stuff behind, excluding the photo, which he was still holding in his hand.

Lion-O's eyes were filled with anger towards Elijah for snapping at Wilykit but that anger turned into concern. He wanted to talk to Elijah, ask him what was wrong. He stood up but was stopped by Cheetara who said to him while her hand was on his shoulder, "No, Lion-O, I'll go talk to him."

Elijah was in his room, sitting on the edge of his bed, facing the door. He was staring at the photo, even though he, specifically, said that he didn't allow anyone else, or himself, to look at it. Seeing it brought horrible images; images of the past that he had been repressing for years.

Cheetara walks into his room, crossing her arms and stared at Elijah. She looked at his face, looking like he was about to cry. Frowning, she was worried about the human, just as much as Lion-O or Kit.

"You know, you didn't have to yell at her. She's just a kid," she said. "Tell me, Elijah, why did you snap when Lion-O saw that picture?"

Looking up, he gives out a small sigh and hands Cheetara the photo. She looks at it and sees a young Elijah, combed hair & all, with other people around him. She, also, notices the girl standing on his right him, wrapping her arms around his neck, and the guy standing on his left, giving a peace sign to the camera.

"This is what made you mad? We don't care how embarrassing you look in this picture," She says to make him happy.

Cheetara still didn't get it. Elijah responds with another sigh, "Look closer; on the right."

She did what he said and looks at the right side of the group in the photo where she noticed one person whose face had been completely scratched out.

Elijah looked down at her feet, feeling depressed and unable to look up.

"Vincent."

"What."

"That's the name of the man whose face I scratched out… Vincent," Elijah explains to Cheetara. He continued, "That man, whom I once called 'brother,' committed an unforgivable act that, even now, has been placed in our history books."

"What is it?" asked Cheetara.

And with that, he looks up at Cheetara with a stern expression and says the word "Xenocide" but the word was unfamiliar to her.

"Definition: Xenocide is the genocidal act of eradicating an entire alien species" is what he said to her. Her eyes widened, he continued explaining more about Vincent and his unforgivable act, saying his belief on human supremacy and his deluded philosophy that mankind should exterminate other alien species and dominate the galaxy to survive.

Silence fell in the living quarters, waiting for results from Cheetara. The cubs were training with Pumyra in combat while Tygra tried to see if he could do the 540 kick, like Elijah, but he failed and fell to the ground many times, making him furious in every attempt. Lion-O was reading Elijah's history book. He was reading the first chapter: 'The Beginning of Man' when Cheetara walks in and asks Lion-O to turn it to page 10,191. He did what she asked and turned it to that exact page.

"I don't believe it," Lion-O murmured.

Lion-O, Tygra, Pumyra, and the cubs didn't believe what they were seeing. In the nineteenth chapter: Vincent's Mutiny and Insubordination were photographic images of Elijah & Vincent. These pictures were showing them saluting to their superiors and being in group photos, however there were also courtroom sketches of Vincent's court-martial and, also, sketches of his xenocide.

Lion-O started reading the first paragraph that talked about the xenocide: "It had been two weeks as the diplomatic ship, the T.S. Henry Kissinger, floated above the newly discovered planet, Voxtoros. The planet was first thought of to be uninhabited but that opinion was proven false when a tribe of humanoid, albino-like natives were discovered by a scouting party. The natives were shown to have a society—"

"—based on Stone Age sophistication that appeared to be on the verge to the Bronze Age," Elijah interrupted Lion-O, walking into the living quarters and standing in front of everyone, displaying the normal, stoic face he, usually, displayed. "You know, if you keep reading, you'll only know bits and pieces of the truth."

When they saw him, everyone, excluding Lion-O and Cheetara, started giving him the stink-eye. Wilykit grabs Lion-O's right arm, now afraid of Elijah's temper. He what yelling at the kitten was wrong.

"I would like to apologize to all of you for my outburst. I didn't mean to lose my temper but I just didn't want anyone to see those pictures," Elijah began apologizing, making the others feel less tense. "So let's begin our history lesson, shall we?"

Waking up, Panthro could still feel the pain throughout his body. He, barely, got up out of bed, noticing the trey of food on his nightstand but saw that he was cold. "How long have I been asleep?" he thought his head, scratching his chest while he stood out of bed.

He walks down the hallway, slouching as he moved his legs. His abdomen, upper torso, and shoulders were covered in bandages. He rubs the back of his neck, feeling the crick in his muscles that appeared from taking a long nap. Walking into the living quarters, everyone started turning their heads towards Panthro, even Elijah did so, as well, to see what they were looking at. He notices a new face standing in front of him and from putting 2 & 2 together, he realizes who Elijah was.

"Ah!" Panthro screams, showing fear in his eyes.

Eyes widened, even if he wasn't wearing that piece of crap of a helmet, Panthro could easily see who Elijah was. Panthro ran in front of the others, protecting his king by blocking the human, putting up his dukes and was ready to fight.

Lion-O stood up to stop his general from bashing Elijah's face. "Panthro, it's okay, everything is settled, now. You don't want to do anything you might regret," Lion-O ordered, placing his hand on the back of Panthro's shoulder and explaining his general. "The whole battle was just a misunderstanding. Elijah's not our enemy; he's our friend."

Panthro settled down, lifting his right hand up to shake Elijah's hand as a sign of peace. "Glad to see I didn't kill you," Elijah joked. Panthro continued while shaking hands, "Yeah, glad to know I'm not dead. Even if everyone is okay with you sticking around, I'll be keeping an eye on you."

"Your paranoia is normal, Panthro, but, rest assure, I will not endanger your people in any way."

As they both stopped shaking each other's hands, Panthro sat down with the others while Elijah continued his story.

"Now, where was I. Oh yeah, now, I remember," Elijah murmured to himself. "You see, before I became of captain, I was once a first lieutenant aboard the T.F. Henry Kissinger. Now, we knew that there was life on Voxtoros before we sent our scouts but what we didn't know is that the natives were large in number. I viewed them as formidable allies but, for Vincent, he thought of them as a nuisance for our attempt to colonize the planet and that they should be wiped out."

"Wait. How was he able wipe out an entire species?" questioned Tygra, crossing his arms and legs.

"Let me explain. While Vincent was more open to his beliefs of human supremacy, there were others who shared the same idea but were too afraid to speak out. So, he started a mutiny, using the other supremacists as his own foot soldiers, manipulating them at his will," he explains to Tygra, continuing to the xenocide part. "While his drones were guarding their leader while he was in the bridge, the captain and I led our loyal soldiers to stop Vincent's insubordination but by the time we got there, he launched a powerful neutron bomb on the planet's surface, exploding and covering the entire planet in fire."

Elijah felt the stress of telling his new friends this story, covering his eyes with his left hand, looking like he was about to cry.

Cheetara notices the stress, saying, "Elijah, you don't have to torture yourself by telling us this story. What you went through must have been horrible, being betrayed by your own brother."

From saying that, Lion-O stares at Cheetara and Tygra, sternly, but looks back at Elijah, listening to his response: "Vincent was really my brother, though. Like the rest of the super soldiers that were created, we shared a relationship similar to that of siblings." He continued, "Also, we weren't just brothers, we were the very best of friends, fighting side by side in many wars."

Panthro knew how it felt being betrayed by the very person he trusted. Pumyra then asks Elijah what happened to Vincent, in which, he answers as a tear fell from his left eye, "Last time I heard was that after his court martial, he was sent to the jungle planet, Guilty Breath, a penal colony established by the Terran Federation to send their most dangerous criminals, you know, murderers, thieves, thugs, rapists, and lunatics, to die."

Now that was the end of his story. Elijah went back to his room, listening to the conversations of the others from behind.

oooooo

In the deep, dark regions of space, a ship, a military starship, was floating around, following the Tiberium particles from Elijah's ship, leading them to Third-Earth. The ship's demented appearance was terrifying to those that would petrol the sector of space they were floating in. It had a cylinder shape with four wings attached on the front and back sides. The front of the ship was like a gaping mouth with sharp, teeth-like objects, sucking in the debris and other material for fuel.

Piloting the ship were the helmsmen. They were dressed in dark cassocks with crimson sash around their waist. They were tall yet hunched with a disfigured face covered in scars.

"Oh, I found him, I found him!" said one of the helmsmen, excitingly. "I must tell my master."

the Helmsman runs through the corridor to his master's chambers where he was greeted by two praetorian, blocking the helmsman from entering. These heavily-armored brutes held pole-arms made from the strongest steel. Their faces were covered in a metal mask design to resemble a dragon's face.

"I'm here to see the master, to see the master. I have important new regarding the location of Elijah, regarding the location of Elijah," the helmsman started shaking and rubbing his hands. He, like the other helmsmen, was afraid of the Praetorian Guard.

"No one is allowed to see the master!" the first praetorian guard roared. "He's too preoccupied in his work, come back lat-"

"Oh, just let him in!" the order came from behind the master's chamber. The guards moved aside, allowing the helmsman to enter. As the doors closed behind him, he was now in the presence of his master.

The chamber was designed to resemble the inside of a sultan's palace:The helmsman stood there, watching his master sharpen and polish his kindjal. His master was a slim, yet muscular man with eyes similar to Elijah's, except for the scar on his right eye, wearing black, imperial attire with two shoulder blades resembling wolf heads and a bandana covering his face. He was sitting on a throne of Arabian design made of gold in the center of his chamber, facing the entrance.

"What is it that you want, helmsman!" he placed his dagger back in its scabbard and stood up out of his throne. "Governor Abdul-Muhib, I bring you good news, good news. I have found the location of Elijah, of Elijah," Answered the helmsman.

Now, there was silence. The governor's left eye widened. He walks to the bridge with the helmsman following him but it was more like limping than walking. The helmsman pressed a few buttons and up on the monitor was a map, a map leading to Elijah. He laughed. He, finally, found Elijah and was prepared to hunt him down on the unknown planet he was on.

"Tell the crew to prepare for hyperdrive," ordered the governor.

"But, master, shouldn't we ask permission from the Imperium, first?" the governor then smacks his helmsman in the face, flinging him to a few inches to the ground.

He grabs the helmsman by the collar and starts shouting in his face, "Know your place, helmsman! On this ship, I'm in control and what I say, goes! I do not need permission from the emperor! This is my ship and I get to do whatever I want!"

Standing up, the helmsman, terrifyingly, nodded his head and did what the governor ordered; pressing a few buttons and spoke through the intercom, telling everyone throughout the ship to brace for hyperdrive. Engines rumbling, a portal opened in front of the ship. Then, next thing you know, the ship disappears through the fourth dimension, sending it to the coordinates of where Elijah's ship had disappeared to. Through hyperspace, he could feel every organ in his body deteriorating and reconfiguring, but as his ship exits out of hyperspace, he stares out into space and sees a planet with a similar appearance as Earth, except for the different land masses.

When the governor walks over to get a closer look, he steps in a pile of goo and from the looks of the cassock, it was his helmsman. He thought to himself: "Oh well, his kind can always be replaced."

"Clean up in the bridge," he said through the intercom. It's going to take away for that puddle of melted flesh to be mopped.

After the bridge was cleaned up, Abdul-Muhib continued staring at the planet, contemplating on which continent Elijah was on. "I know you're there, brother, and when I find you, I'll be the first to kill you and drain your blood, just for fun," he started talking to himself, smiling at the twisted thoughts that appeared in his mind. There were only three words that would describe him: He was insane.

oooooo

The sounds of rails moving could be heard throughout the forest. The Thundertank was moving to a new area; one with a town. The Thundercats needed to get more supplies. Elijah was in his room, sitting on his bed, staring out the window and watching as trees passed by. In his hand was a small, detonator. He presses it, setting off the bomb he implanted in his ship's engine. The Thundertank was too far away to here the explosion.

Pantro was in the control room, driving the tank. Tygra was sitting beside him.

He looks at the general and says in shock, "Did you hear that?"

"I didn't hear anything," Panthro replied, focusing on the dirt road and not turning his head to the tiger.

Lion-O was still in the living quarters, practicing the Sword of Omens on the same practice dummy Tygra used. Pumyra was standing behind her king, watching him spar in amusement. Legs crossed, the puma felt excited. Lion-O turned around and jumped back a little, finally noticing the puma behind him.

"Pumyra, how long have you been sitting there?" asked Lion-O.

She smirked, standing up and walking towards the lion king. She replied, "Long enough to see how well you are with that sword. Maybe, when you're done, you could teach me some moves?"

Her flirtatious gestures made the young lion blush a little. They were interrupted by Elijah, walking into the living quarters with both hands behind his back. Elijah changed out of his stillsuit, knowing that it was uncomfortable, but kept the gauntlet, the one that produced the energy shield. He was dressed in a white tunic and brown pants with a black belt.

"Your manner of courtship intrigues me but I have no time to observe," he said, walking towards the dummy.

When mentioning 'courtship,' Lion-O and Pumyra moved a couple of inches away from each other; blushing, with Lion-O rubbing the back of his neck while Pumyra rubbing her upper right arm.

He stares at the dummy and asks, "If it's okay with you, Lion-O, could I try out my skills on this practice dummy?"

"Sure, I don't mind," Lion-O replied. "Do you need a sword?"

"No need, I have my own sword," he presses a few buttons and out of his gauntlet was an energy sword. Lion-O was amazed but Pumyra was annoyed since she never understood technology.

With just one swing, Elijah sliced the dummy in half. Then he walks back into his assigned room. Pumyra sternly, look at Elijah as he walked away. Lion-O looks and says to Pumyra, "You still feel uncomfortable around him, don't you?"

Arms crossed, Pumyra responds, "No, it's not like I feel uncomfortable but just edgy. I've come to trust him but his personality seems a little...off and, maybe, it's just a human thing or something."

"Well, if we see anymore humans, then we can see if it is a human thing," Lion-O added.

"Why? Are you hoping to see human females?" Pumyra started teasing him. "I didn't know you were that kinky."

"N-no, that's not what I meant!" Lion-O exclaimed.

"Don't worry, Lion-O, I'll keep your dirty, little secret," Pumyra's flirting became more seductive. She walks down to the control room but not before caressing Lion-O's face. "I'll see you in a little while."

All alone, Lion-O stood in front of the sliced dummy. Panthro was not going to be happy when he sees what happened to his dummy.

To be concluded.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: They're Coming**

It was hard to meditate. Elijah could feel the vibration from the Thundertank through the floor. He was holding the metallic sphere in his lap, channeling his spiritual energy into it, trying so hard to unlock its secrets but that was proven pointless.

"Oh God, what am I doing?" he thought, putting the ball back on the nightstand beside his bed. He realizes that the Thundertank had stopped. Elijah walks outside of his door to see what's going on. He walks into the control room, seeing that only the Wilys, Tygra, Panthro, and Cheetara were the only ones around.

"Huh, where's Lion-O and Pumyra?" asked Elijah, looking at Panthro as he was doing maintenance on the Thundertank with Tygra assisting him.

"Lion-O and Pumyra went out to the marketplace to get more supplies," Panthro answered Elijah's question, keeping his eyes on the wires he was fixing, not turning around to face the human. "They'll be back in a while. Why do you ask?"

Elijah shrugged, replying with "just curious" and turned towards the twins, sitting at the table, staring at him.

"I heard what you did to Panthro's practice dummy," Wilykat was smiling as he continued talking. "Slicing it in half with an energy sword; I should've been there to see it."

Mentioning the practice dummy being destroyed pushed one of Panthro's buttons. Anger started emanating from the panther, turning around to face Elijah with a big wrench in his left, metallic hand. You could see it on panthro's face that he was pissed.

"You were the one who wrecked my practice dummy!" shouted Panthro. "I had that thing back when I was a rookie! It was an antique but now it's just a piece of junk!"

Elijah tried to reason with the angry panther. It wasn't afraid of Panthro hurting him but he was afraid of hurting the general.

He responds, calmly, "Panthro, I swear to you it was an accident. It's been a while since I'd used my energy blade so I had forgotten how powerful it can be."

"Saying you're sorry won't do! Unless you know anything about wood carving, then I'll have second thoughts on hitting you with this wrench!" Panthro roared.

"I swear to you in the names of my ancestors, in the name of God, and in the name of the Man Jesus that I'll repair your practice dummy," Elijah's promise actually eased Panthro a little, even though he didn't get the other parts he said. "Now, if I'm going to repair your dummy, I'm going to need materials. So where is this marketplace?"

"It's about 1-mile-away from the Thundertank," answered Cheetara, walking down the latter and stood between the two cats. "But, before you go, you're going to need to where something that doesn't reveal your...unique appearance."

"Indeed, I do not want the indigenous population to be thrown into mass hysteria from my human appearance. So what kind of disguise do you have in mind?"

15-minutes-later, Cheetara returned to the control room from her room and brought a long cloth and gives it to Elijah. He wraps it around his head, covering his entire head, except for his eyes. Out of the Thundertank, he notices that it's parked on top of a hill, preventing it from being spotted.

"Wow, now that's one steep hill," he says while looking down.

"Eh, what did you expect? This hill is a perfect spot to hide from any enemy," Panthro was standing behind Elijah with his mechanical arms crossed. "Besides, the view of the marketplace is nice from up here."

"Yeah, you're right. The view is nice," Elijah agreed. "Now, how do I get down from here?"

Panthro points at Elijah's right side and explains, "There's a road leading from here to the market on your right. All you have to do is walk down and it'll take you to where you need to go."

Before Elijah starting walking down, he was given a bag full of money from Cheetara. He places it in his pocket and began walking. The walk down from the hill reminded him of his training days on Caldrak 5 where he had to run 30 miles across the brutal landscapes to beat his 'siblings' in a race but walking down a hill wasn't that brutal.

Making it to the marketplace, he sees many life forms, animal and humanoid, buying and selling merchandise. Elijah spots three that he recognized: Lion-O and Pumyra. Walking towards them, he places his hand on the lion king's left shoulder, making react and was about to punch the light out of Elijah until he saw his eye color and knew who he was.

"Elijah, what are you doing here?" asked Lion-O.

"Well, funny story. Remember Panthro's training dummy I sliced in half?" he explained while scratching the back of his head. "Panthro got mad when he heard and sent me down to the market to buy materials to repair it."

"And the disguise?" questioned Pumyra.

"I wear it so that my human face wouldn't attract attention or cause mass hysteria. Now, if you wouldn't mind, may I tag along with the three of you?"

"Sure," responded Lion-O. The lion king was the only one comfortable with the idea, except for Pumyra. Even though Pumyra accepts the human, she's still edgy to be around him.

They walked around and stopped to buy what they needed. Sometimes, while they walked, Elijah would take glimpses of the Sword of Omens. Why was he looking at the Sword? He didn't know why but Elijah felt an aura coming out of it.

"You know, you don't have to stare at it. If you're wondering about the Sword, you can just ask," Lion-O remarked.

Pumyra disagreed to Lion-O's idea, looking at him and shaking her head. He, briefly, glanced at her but looked away, facing Elijah while they walked.

Stopping at one merchant stand, Elijah responds in a curious tone of voice, "Yes, well, I am curious about your sword because I've been sensing a strange aura coming out of it, even during our temporary brawl, I sensed something from it. Elaborate, please?"

Lion-O explained as best as he could; making it easy to understand, "This is the Sword of Omens, the most powerful weapon in all of Third-Earth. Believe me; it's not technological but magical, made to subdue evil."

Elijah stood, responding with "magic, you say?" with his right eyebrow raised, almost looked like he was about to smile in amusement. "Eh, I've heard stranger things," he comments while shrugging his shoulders.

"What do you mean?" asked Lion-O.

"Technically, many of my people do not believe in magic, thinking of it as complete nonsense. However, there is a minority of humans that still practice magic, causing many to label them 'witches' out of ignorance," that explanation was somewhat ironic to Lion-O since his people thought that technology was a myth, as well. "Instead of believing in magic, the majority of the human species rely on science and technology, which has made some of us arrogant but not to the point where we look down on other sentient life forms."

Pumyra crossed her arms and says, "So, let me get this straight. You're part of the majority that believes in…science, was it?"

"Sort of," Elijah replied, tilting his head back and stared at the sky for a few second before looking at the puma. "Though, I do follow the concept of science, I tend to have a spiritual point-of-view on life, believing in a mystical force powering the universe."

Eyes widened, Lion-O noticed how weird-out Pumyra became from listening to Elijah. An-hour-later, Lion-O, Pumyra, and Elijah were finished with their supply gathering and headed back to the Thundertank. The two Thundercats were both surprised and amazed at how Elijah was lifting 5 heavy, wooden logs, over his head, at once. For a time, Elijah wondered that since Lion-O was Lord of the Thundercats and that the others cats were his subjects wouldn't that make him a king without a kingdom?

"Lion-O, I've had another question on my mind. Are you and your group the last of your kind?" He questions while walking. Lion-O turned his head to Elijah and responded, "No! What makes you say that?"

Elijah didn't know how to put this in words without offending the young king. He explains in a stoic manner, "Because I notice that, while you are a king, you seem to have a small number of subjects. Also, I don't see any other felines in this marketplace, excluding you two, of course."

Pumyra stared at Elijah with such aggressiveness, mentioning the outcome of their people brought bad memories. Lion-O explained as they walked back to the Thundertank. It was hard for him to talk about it all since it, also, brought terrible memories but it was he who saw Thundera's destruction before it happened. He explained everything: The Fall of Thundera, the Death of Lion-O's father, King Claudus, the Crusade against Mumm-Ra, The Quest for the Book of Omens, The Astral Plane, the Search for the Stones, and the Liberation of the cat slaves in Mount Plun-Darr. Elijah was stricken with remorse and sympathy for the Thundercats and their struggle.

"While stands the Coliseum, Romes hall stand; When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall; and when Rome falls - the World," Elijah quoted, confusing the two.

"What?" said Lion-O.

"Nothing, it's just a sentence from the poem, the Coliseum, written by Lord Byron, a poet from 19th century Earth," Elijah replied.

They finally made it back to the Thundertank and saw Panthro standing at the entrance and when he saw Elijah's heavy lifting; it caused his jaw to drop. "How could a man with such a slim appearance have such immense strength?" Was what Panthro was thinking. Well, that's the benefit of being a super-soldier.

But before they could rest, Lion-O, Pumyra, Panthro, and Elijah heard screams coming from the control room. Pumyra, Lion-O, and Elijah, carefully, dropped what they were carrying and ran Panthro into the control room.

"I heard screaming!" shouted Lion-O. "Is everyone okay!"

Tygra, Cheetara, and the cubs turned their heads to their king and the others that stood behind him. It would seem that everyone was alright. Running in the control room under a false alarm made the four feel stupid, however, they arrived at a perfect time.

"Lion-O, we're all Okay," said Cheetara. She was sitting with the cubs, keeping an eye on them as they played with Snarf.

"But you did come at a perfect time," Tygra added as he sat in front of the monitors.

The screams were not coming from the other cats but, in fact, were coming from the monitors. The marketplace was under attack. Bandits, at least fifty of them, mounted on raptor-like creatures began vandalizing the merchant stands and pillaging their goods. Lion-O ordered the other Thundercats, including Elijah and excluding the cubs, to move out. As they reached the market, they split up.

At the marketplace, a squirrel woman, dressed in merchant clothing, ran for her life to a safer location. In her hands was a box filled with the profits she'd made. She tripped, falling to the ground with her money scattered. As she started picking the coins that fell back into her box, three bandits surrounded her. They were all coyotes dressed in rags and leather armor.

"Okay, hand over the box, lady, and we'll be on our way," the coyote in the middle demanded.

The squirrel woman stood up, holding her box, tightly, in her chest. She cried, "No, Please! This is all the money I've made!"

They pulled out their weapons; swords and axes. If she didn't hand over the money, then they would kill her. Out of the blue, a flashing, yellow light appeared. It was Cheetara, using her speed to save the squirrel merchant, beating up three of the bandits at once. Like that, the three bandits dropped to the ground.

The squirrel merchant was speechless. Elijah walked up and stood in front of her, saying: "Madam, please vacate the area to a safer location. We are trained professionals and we will be able to handle this situation."

The squirrel merchant did as she was asked and ran to somewhere safe. Five bandits were riding on their steeds, attacking anyone and anything that was in their way but they were soon stopped by Panthro. He was standing in front of them, wielding his nunchucks and was ready to attack.

"I have a word for guys like you," he said, running and swinging his nunchucks towards his opponents. He shouts while knocking three bandits off their mounts, "Cowards!"

He then grabs the other two before they could retreat and bashed both their heads together.

Cheetara was faced with twelve bandits. As they started swinging their axes and swords, she dodged every attack they through at her. She retaliates, striking 8 of them with her staff. Eight unconscious, the other 4 retreated but were stopped by vines popping out of the ground, caused by Cheetara planting her staff into the ground.

Now, Tygra thought he could handle the bandits he was dealing with. Seven bandits, to be precise, but it was that arrogance which made him vulnerable. Even though he was invisible, he underestimated the coyote bandit's sense of smell. He tried to attack from behind but they knew he was there and as he was ready to attack, one bandit turned and struck the invisible tiger with a mace. Now visible, the same bandit was preparing to bash Tygra to death but that's when he pulled out his laser pistol and fired at the bandits' abdomen. It was powerful enough to knock him out but not powerful enough to kill him. The tiger leaps away into the air and uses his whip, lashing at the other six, that is, until they had the upper hand.

One of the bandits was carrying a whip of their own. He throws it and latches it around Tygra's neck bringing him down from the air and dragging him on the ground towards the other bandits. The whip was too tight; Tygra could feel every bit of oxygen slipping away from his lungs.

Suddenly, the middle part of the whip snaps, releasing Tygra from his near death. From that, you could hear Tygra breathing, heavily. The one that saved him was Pumyra, standing on one of the merchant stands and firing her pellets at the six bandits, causing them to scatter like mice.

"You know, I didn't need your help. I had everything under control," Tygra remarked, looking at Pumyra, whom was standing behind him, while he rubbed the sore on his neck.

Pumyra, quietly, laughed at the stubborn tiger and replied, sarcastically, "Sure, I bet you did."

At another part of the market, four bandits surrounded Elijah against a wall. One of them, arrogantly, says to his comrades, "Hey, it's just one of him and four of us. We can take him at once."

Elijah started pressing the buttons on his gauntlet. From it, the gauntlet covered his hand in ooze, converting it into a metallic cone and from the pointy end of it an energy chain appeared and at the end of it was a spiky ball, resembled that of a flail. At first, the bandits were afraid of the trick Elijah had just pulled, calling it a form of black magic but that fear disappeared few seconds later and soon they charged at him. He dodged their attacks with quick speed. He was as slippery as an eel. He strikes one of the bandits right in the chest with his energy flail, flinging him 5-feet-away from him. The second bandit threw a punch at the human but Elijah dodged the blow, grabs the bandit's arm, and breaks it by jabbing his elbow into the bandit's lower arm with force.

"You call yourselves fighters. I've fought rookies with better fighting skills then you' all!" Elijah scolded the bandits, throwing the one with a broken arm onto the ground, watching as her screamed in pain. "You know what you' all are, rejects! You show know honor in battle, attack the weak and helpless!"

Clink! the sound of two weapons coming in contact. Elijah was sparring against a bandit with a scimitar-like sword. The metal from the sword was, slowly, melting due to the heat from the energy flail. As the coyote bandit's sword melted into a puddle of goo, Elijah tornado kicks him in the face, sending him flying and landing on a roof.

The last bandit was terrified and said, shivering, "W-who are you."

"Your worst nightmare," Elijah replies in a threatening tone of voice.

The coyote bandit drops his weapon and, cowardly, flees for his life. Elijah's energy flail morphs back into his hand. You could actually here his finger popping as he clinches. Since there was no one around and the other three bandits were unconscious, he presses a button on his gauntlet and starts dancing. Out of his gauntlet was music but it wasn't in English. In fact, it was in Japanese: "Sekaijuu no HAPPINESU ugokasu kagi ha mou uketotteiru HAZU nanda KIMI ga KIMI ga akeru ban! pittari no erande mune no naka nozoite mite? meikyuu iri shiteta namida mirai KIRAmeki dashiteru! mitsuke ni ikou!"

The Thundercats, excluding Lion-O, regrouped and went looking for Elijah and their king, lion-O. They started hearing noises but it wasn't noises, it was music. The Thundercats followed it and found Elijah. They stopped and were surprised at what Elijah was doing. Panthro's and Tygra's eyes widened with their jaws dropping, Pumyra started laughing hard, and Cheetara appeared confused.

"What is he doing?" Panthro asked while his eyes were still wide.

"I have don't know," replied Tygra, "But I think he's dancing."

Before he could continue dancing, Elijah was shocked, realizing his new friends were watching him. He asks them in a shocked pose, "How long have' all been standing there?"

"Long enough, my friend, long enough," answered Tygra. His facial expression changed from shock to amusement. Then, next thing you know, both Tygra and Panthro started laughing.

Annoyed, Elijah turns off the music playing on his gauntlet and crosses his arms. They' all stopped laughing and went to find Lion-O. They found him, sparring with four coyote bandits with the Sword of Omens, defeating two of them without having a scratch on him. He was exhausted; slouching and, heavily, breathing. Elijah and the Thundercats walked up to their king.

Pumyra asks the king, "Are we done here?" In which, he replies, "No, no yet."

20-minutes-later, they spotted a group of the eighteen, remaining bandits sitting, or standing, in the center of the market, just a mile away from where the Thundercats were. The Thundercats hid inside the merchant stands, listening on the conversation.

One of them, a big one, started pummeling another coyote. It would indicate that the big one was the leader. The coyote the big one was beating was the same coyote, the one that retreated after facing Elijah.

"What! You and your group were beaten by one man, just one man!" the big coyote roared.

The bandit being scolded replied, sniveling, "P-please, sir! You didn't see what happened! This guy used some kind of black magic and used strange fighting skills!"

The stern face the big coyote was showing was terrifying to the others. Now, this guy was more of a tyrant than a bandit leader.

"And what the hell is wrong with all of you! You let five cats get the best of you!" He turned away from the sniveling coyote and started scolding the others around him. "They're cats; we're coyotes! They're no threat to us anymore since they lost Thundera! We can easily take' em!"

"Want to bet!" retorted Lion-O, revealing his presence with the others following him.

The coyotes reacted to their presence, pulling out their weapons and were ready to attack. The coyote leader stares at Lion-O with a malicious grin and said to him, "Well, well, well, you must be Lion-O, the new king of Thundera. Pity you don't have a kingdom to rule over."

What he said angered Lion-O. Even though there was a Thunderian settlement in the ruins, it didn't count as a kingdom. The sniveling coyote noticed Elijah standing beside the lion king. Eyes widened, the coyote shouts, "That's him! That's the guy, the one with the cloth over his face!"

"What! That's him! He doesn't look tough!" The bandit leader retorted, staring at the human.

"If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril," Elijah quoted to the coyote leader. He didn't get what Elijah was saying, nobody did. However, Elijah calling the bandit leader ignorant made him furious.

The bandit leader bellowed, "Ignorant! I'm not ignorant! Nobody calls me ignorant!" he then orders his minions: "Men, kill the cats and bring me the head of both the shrouded one and their king!"

A loud battle began between the remaining coyote bandits and the Thundercats. Lion-O summoned the full power of the Sword of Omens, shouting his battle cry: "Thunder, Thunder, Thunder…Thundercats—Ho!"

Out of the blade, a blast of red light appeared out through the blade and into the sky, forming the Thundercats' symbol. Elijah was mesmerized by the sword's power, staring with such wide eyes. "Fascinating!" he says to himself, holding one bandit in a headlock.

Panthro used his martial art technique against 3 bandits, Tygra used his whip against 5, Cheetara used her speed and staff abilities against 6, and Pumyra used her bola against 3. Elijah, on the other hand, only took out one with the sleeper hold.

"Huh, usually you would at least take out 5 or 6," Tygra's comment was positive at first but soon became negative. "What happen? Did you do run out of energy to fight?"

The tiger's witty comment had no effect on Elijah. As usual, he was like a machine. He turns around, facing Tygra, and replied, sarcastically, "No, I just wanted to observe your talents, Tygra. Your skills with a whip are far superior against my skills with this gauntlet."

The humans' sarcasm sounded too real to be sarcastic, causing Tygra's ego to inflate.

"Well, yeah, thanks for noticing, Elijah. I am great with a whip but I bet your toy will never compete against it," the tiger declaimed.

"Oh brother," Panthro sighs, placing his right, metallic hand against his face.

Lion-O was dealing with the bandit leader who was armed with a xiphos-like sword, sparring with it against the Sword of Omens.

"Like the rest of your people, you've become weak, falling down to the bottom of the food chain," Said the bandit leader. "No wonder why the lizards, easily, destroyed Thundera!"

"That's because the lizards had help from Mumm-Ra!" lion-O exclaimed.

"Mumm-Ra, ha, don't make me laugh!" the bandit leader retorted. He stopped sparring and stepped 3-inches-away from Lion-O. "Mumm-Ra is a myth and if your people still believe in fairy tales, then you' all are more pathetic than I thought!"

That comment was like being stung by a wasp to the Thundercats. Enraged, Pumyra nearly jumped into lion-O's fight, shouting "That's it!" but she was stopped by a calm, yet stern, Panthro.

His xiphos was no match against Lion-O's sword. With great power, lion-O fires a blast of lightning against the bandit leader, sending him flying over to another side of the market. It was finally over; everyone was cheering Lion-O for his heroic deeds.

Lion-O turned, facing the sniveling bandit waking up from his unconsciousness. He soon noticed Elijah's energy blade and saw that he was about to use it to execute the coyote. Lion-O was the only one who noticed.

He raised his energy blade, preparing to strike with one, fatal blow but as he was about to strike, Lion-O blocked his energy sword with the Sword of Omens, shouting out, "Elijah no!"

The metal from the Sword of Omens was far too powerful to be destroyed by Elijah's weapon. The other Thundercats turned towards Lion-O and Elijah's brawl.

"I knew he couldn't be trusted!" Panthro remarked, pulling out his nunchucks and was ready to fight.

Both Elijah and Lion-O gave stern looks at each other, having the human asking the lion, "Why are you preventing this fiend's execution!"

"I want to ask the same question of why you want to execute them!" Lion-O countered.

Elijah stepped back a few-feet-away from Lion-O, deactivating his energy weapon and continued giving the king a stern look.

Elijah hated answering questions like that, knowing that it would wake up his conscience. "Conduct 34 of the Terran Armed Forces states: 'If a war criminal is charged with acts unforgiving than he is either executed or exiled to a penal colony,'" Elijah stated. He continued, "And since I don't have a ship and since there aren't any penal colonies in this part of the galaxy, I had to choose the first part."

Lion-O tried to reason with the soldier, knowing it would be difficult to do so. He places the Sword of Omens back into the Gauntlet of Omens and tried to convince Elijah to spare the coyotes.

"Look, Elijah, you can't execute them. They didn't do anything wrong. The coyotes were, merely, following orders. Back in Thundera, I helped two lizards from execution and in return, they helped us survive Mumm-Ra's attack on the kingdom, and back at Mount Plun-Darr, I protected a rat from Pumyra's wrath…"

That part irritated the puma and she, quickly, cooled down. Lion-O continued, "…and in return, he helped me defeat the tyrant, Ratar-O. Can't you see? We have to show mercy to the coyotes because they were force to do so."

Head down, his eyes were staring at the ground. He started contemplating on what Lion-O said. "I…I guess you're right. Maybe mercy is the best choice in war."

What Elijah just said made Lion-O, and the others, smile with relief. "Thank you, thank you" the sniveling coyote started kissing the king's feet in gratitude, making him a little uncomfortable. "Th-that's okay! Go and get your other comrades, you're free to go," Lion-O responded with such uneasiness in his voice.

As the coyotes left the market, many people came out of hiding and started running towards the Thundercats so that they may thank their heroes. An-hour-later, Elijah and the Thundercats headed back to the Thundertank. As they walked inside, they were greeted by two energetic kittens and a happy Snarf.

"Welcome back!" shouted the Wilys in unison.

Snarf runs to his master, crawling up and sitting on his shoulder. "Hey Snarf, did you miss us?" said Lion-O, rubbing Snarfs chin with his finger.

"Meow!" replied Snarf.

While walking down the corridor, Tygra looked at Elijah and said to him, "You know, you can take off that disguise?"

A shock of realization went through his nerves; Elijah forgot that his face was still covered. He took off his disguise, removing the cloth from his head.

In the control room, Lion-O, Tygra, Pumyra, Cheetara, and Panthro were looking into the navigation system, i.e. the Book of Omens, to search for the next stone. Seeing how the arrow was pointing to the sky, they knew that it was somewhere in the clouds.

"So, any ideas on how to get up there?" asked Panthro.

"Well, maybe we could use Elijah's ship to fly up in the sky," Lion-O answered Panthro's question. "I'm sure he'll let us use it."

"I doubt it, I don't think it's even able to fly," Pumyra commented.

Tygra thought up a solution and said with a small grin, "What if we return to the forest and get the ship. That way, we can take it to the berbils and see if they can fix it-"

"-Sorry, my friend, but that would be impossible," said Elijah, standing behind Tygra, almost scaring him to death. He continued, "After we left the forest, I destroyed the ship by rewiring the ship's tiberium engine to explode with this trigger."

In his hand, Elijah showed all of them the detonator.

"You blew up your own ship? Why?" asked Cheetara. Placing the detonator in his pocket, he answers the cheetah's question, "I had to do what I could to prevent its technology from falling into the wrong hands. At first, I didn't know if there was any threat on this planet but that was until Lion-O told me about Mumm-Ra and how he manipulated the lizards into destroying your home. So I knew I made the right choice to destroy my ship, even before I knew that there was any threat."

"But that means you can't return home," Cheetara pointed out.

Silence fell on the human, knowing that that was the sacrifice he had made but he didn't care because that wasn't his priority. His main priority was to protect the sphere.

"That's the sacrifice I had made and it's the sacrifice I'm sticking to," hearing his response, Cheetara respected the human's decision.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be in my chambers," Elijah walked out of the control room and into his chambers to continue his meditation.

"Great, now what do we do, little brother?" asked Tygra, facing his brother. "With no ship, how are we going to get the next stone?"

They all looked at their king, hoping he knew the answer. Lion-O didn't say anything, rubbing his temples to relieve the frustration. He sighed, leaving the room with an "I'm sorry" and went into his chambers to think.

Pumyra went after him, hoping that she would help her king. Both Cheetara and Panthro showed concern while Tygra, the arrogant prince he was, just crossed his arms, showing no concern for his brother. Panthro activated the Thundertank and drove to a new destination.

oooooo

In the forest where the Thundercats met Elijah, men wearing hazmat suits were walking in the crater that was made by Elijah's ship, using geiger counters to scan the background radiation from the tiberium. Behind them was their ship. It was small with a rectangular shape, having jet-like wings on both its sides. On its front was a glass frame with two Gatling guns on both its wings.

"Report, what have you found?" said a voice coming out of a walky-talky.

"Sir, he was here but not anymore," said one of the men in the hazmat suits. "He was smart enough to cover his tracks by destroying his ship. This whole crater is tainted with tiberium radiation."

In space, Governor Abdul-Muhib's ship was orbiting around Third-Earth, speaking to his men down on the planet through his communication device on the ships' control panel. "Well, keep looking! Search through the wreckage and find whatever you can that will lead us to him or else I'll have all your heads on pikes!" The Governor was so loud that every hazmat-wearing soldier heard and was terrified.

Anger was in his good eye, the governor was not a very patient man. He stood over the control panel with both hands touching the edge. Heavily breathing from yelling, he sits down with both arms on his arm rest.

"Guards, bring me my manservant!" he shouts.

"Right away, sir," the first, two guards replied. They walked out of the bridge but returned with a skinny, cybernetic man in front of him, bringing him to face the governor.

Bushing him to the ground, he stood up in front of the governor, all-jittery, and a responses, "W-what is it you need, your eminence."

Now, the manservant was dressed in a ragged tunic like that of a slave, having every part of his body replaced with prosthetics, except with the right side of his face and his upper right arm and shoulder.

"You know why I summoned you! I'm parched!" the governor barked, slamming his right fist on his armrest and scaring his manservant.

"Y-yes, right, well, how about some wine. M-maybe that would calm you down, sir," as the manservant waited for a response, the governor lifted up his right hand, appearing like he was about to strike him but he placed it back down on his armrest and replies with a calming demeanor, "Actually, wine does sound nice."

"Fetch me some wine so that I may quench my thirst," the governor ordered while, arrogantly, waving his hand in an aristocratic manner.

"A-at once, my lord," The manservant left the bridge but returned 5-minutes-later with a bottle of wine and a chalice made from the finest gold in the entire galaxy. He presents it to the governor and explains: "This brand is from the winemakers of the planet Taurus in 2246. A good year, is it not, your gloriousness?"

The governor held his chalice in front of his manservant, watching him pour the wine. He did not take off his bandana but, simply, lifted it and took a sip. Soon, he had an idea.

Orders all of his helmsmen, sternly, "Scramble all the scouts we have! Send them to every part of the planet!"

The helmsmen did what they were told but one of the soldiers in the bridge, a primus pilus, spoke out of terms and questions the governors' methods: "With all due respect, sir, but the planet is big and it would be a waste of energy to send scouts. Shouldn't we just send one teams in one area and do so, again, tomorrow?"

Bang! The primus pilus' head explodes, causing blood to spew out of his headless neck. His carcass falls to the ground with blood staining the metal floor. Horrified, every one turned their heads to the governor. In his left hand, he held a laser pistol, aiming in the direction where his primus pilus was standing.

"All of you listen and listen, carefully! I am in charge, I give the orders, and I'll be damned if any of you tells me what to do!" The Helmsmen went back to what they were doing while the Praetorian Guard dragged the primus pilus' carcus out of the bridge. Governor Abdul-Muhib placed back into its holster and returned to drinking his wine. He stared at the monitor, watching as scouting parties, all 200 of them, flew to the planet's surface.

He was smiling with ease, laughing, maniacally as scout ships flew to the planet.

oooooo

Night had fallen upon the planet, Pumyra stood in front of her king's door, having second thoughts about entering. She knocks on his door but there was no response from the other side. She opens the door and walks in but notices that Lion-O was not in his room.

The lion king was sitting on the hood of the Thundertank, staring at the stars, thinking of how they would get the stone from up there. The hatch opens behind him, Scaring Lion-O and causing him to turn to see who was coming.

"Pumyra," exclaimed Lion-O.

"I knew you would be up here," said Pumyra, stepping out of the hatch and walking towards Lion-O.

She sat beside her king and gazed at the heavens, as well. "You're still thinking about the stone, huh?" she asked, looking at her king.

"Yeah but there's something else," Lion-O turns his head, facing the puma. "It's Elijah. He destroys his own ship for what? What is he afraid of that would cause him to do so?"

Pumyra frowned, thinking the same thing. She then asked a different question, "You're still in love with Cheetara, aren't you?"

"What?" asked Lion-O as his face turned red. "N-no, I'm over her, way over her!"

"You asked me that back in Mount Plun-Darr but you still love her. I've seen the way you look at her," She gave her king a sly grin.

He sighed and said, "You're right, I'm still in love with her but she's in love with Tygra and there's nothing I can do about it. I guess that's why I tried to court with you, Pumyra, to try and move on."

"Well, what do you think of me?" Pumyra asked.

Shocked, Lion-O didn't know how to answer that question. Blushing and scratching the back of his head, Lion-O finally said his opinion about the puma, "W-well, you're beautiful, you're passionate, and, even though you tend to be mean..." That wasn't the right thing to say as Pumyra started giving Lion-O a stern look. He continued "...You have a soft, gentle side."

What he said about her being gentle made her blush a little. She was on all-fours, leaning in closer to Lion-O, making the king blush as their faces nearly touched. Pumyra places both of her arms around Lion-O's neck and, gently, gives him a passionate kiss on the lips.

That action left the king speechless. Pumyra leaned away from Lion-O, smiling while she removed the hairs away from her own face. Lion-O, finally, responded, "Wow, that was...I don't what to say?"

"How about amazing?" said Pumyra.

"Well...It's getting late. Maybe, we should head back inside before people start asking questions," said Lion-O to Pumyra.

"Y-yes, we should," replied Pumyra. They both walked down the hatching, closing it behind them as they entered the tank.

As they walked down the hall, side-by-side, they're spotted by Kit, hiding in a dark corner on the hall way, on the right, that led to the galley. She watched as Lion-O and Pumyra were walking together, which made her fluster with anger at the puma, looking like she wanted to pounce on her and yell "Lion-O is mine" in her face.

Her observation of the two was interrupted when a hand tapped her on the right shoulder. She jumps in surprise, turns around, and saw that it was just her brother.

"Kat, you scared me!" Wilykit whispered to her brother but it sounded more like shouting than whispering.

Raising his right eyebrow, Kat was chewing on what appeared to be a cookie. He looks at his sister, curious at what she was looking at. He asks, "What are you doing."

"N-nothing, I wasn't spying on Lion-O and Pumyra, if that's what you're thinking!" She replied, flustering in embarrassment and laughing, hysterically. "Nope, that's not what I'm doing, at all!"

Kat looked over his sister and saw Lion-O and Pumyra walking, together. He gives his sister and sly grin. "You have a crush on Lion-O, don't you?" Wilykat pointed out.

"I do not!" Kit exclaimed.

"Oh, yes you do!" Kat countered. He continued teasing his sister, singing while walked to their room: "Lion-O and Wilykit: sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage!"

"Leave me alone," Shouted Kit, running to her room to get away from her brother. She jumped into her bed on her stomach and placed her face against her pillow.

"Stupid Kat, he know what he's talking about!" she thought, clenching her chest and feeling her heart racing. "But, still, if I was a few years older, then, maybe, Lion-O and I…" She shook her head in doubt and continued, "No, no, what am I thinking! He would never be attracted to me because there are other girls here, Pumyra and Cheetara, and both of them are prettier."

Kat was wandering the halls until came across Elijah's room. He was curious of what the human was doing so he knocked on the door when heard the words "come in," in which, Kat opened the door and walked in.

In his quarters, Elijah was sitting on the floor, leg crossed, polishing the metallic sphere on his lap. He wasn't wearing his gauntlet, feeling it wasn't necessary to wear it since there wasn't a battle going on. You could see the tan lines on his left wrist.

His gauntlet was placed on his nightstand with the music player on, playing the song "Cruel Angel Thesis" by Yoko Takahashi.

"Kat, was it? Tell me why you entered my quarters?" Elijah asked without turning his head. He knew it was Kat because he sensed his aura, which is pretty rare for humans.

"I don't know? I was just bored," replied Kat. He looked at the sphere in Elijah's lap, seeing how he was taking care of it. He asks while pointing at it, "Why do you have that metal ball? Is it valuable?"

Even though he said it was classified information, he tried to explain to the kitten, "Yes…no…well, you see…Oh God, can you keep a secret?"

"Sure."

"I don't know what it is and what it does. However, there have been many human factions, good and bad, who want their hands on it. So I was sworn to protect it from those who would use it for wrongdoing, even though I don't know what it does," That puzzled the kitten, learning that Elijah didn't know what he was protecting.

He says to him in a curious tone of voice, "But why are you protecting something if you don't know what it does?"

"Well, because I'm a Divina, a super-soldier. I was born and raised to be the perfect soldier: Loyal, obedient, and honorable, to never question my superiors and to answer to every command. In other words, I'm like an ant that always answers to the queen."

Wilykat grew tired of standing and sat down in front of the human. He was intrigued by the human, tilting his head in awe by his loyalty, yet he felt complicated by Elijah's obedience.

He soon changed the subject, "Do you think you'll ever teach those fighting moves of yours?"

"Sure but not until you're older," his answer was like that of a parent. Kat exclaimed, "Aw!" disappointed that he'll never learn the arts of Kung Fu unless he was older.

The cub stood up and left the room, leaving Elijah to continue polishing the sphere.

oooooo

Looking into his mystical pool, Mumm-Ra observed the new edition of the Thundercats, the human, Elijah.

"So, the Thundercats have a new member," said Mumm-Ra, dragging his weary bones to pool to get a closer look. "And it seems to be a human."

"A human, I've never seen one on Third-Earth before, master?" asked Slithe, standing on the left side of the pool.

"That's because they're not from Third-Earth but from small planet in the Sol System that shares a similar name, called Earth," Explained Mumm-Ra. "You see, Slithe, 5- Millennia-ago, before I came to Third-Earth, I visited the humans' home world but, back then, the humans lived in a primitive civilization, waging wars against one another for territory, wealth, and dominance. I was impressed by their ability to adapt and to advance. So I attempted to recruit them to further my cause but they soon retaliated with decisive tactics and, easily, defeated me and my army, believing we were demons, or dark gods, and kicked us off their planet. 5, 000 years had passed and it seems they have advanced to the point of space travel. "

"He looks good enough to eat," said Kaynar, laughing, insanely, while licking his lips. He was standing at the end of the pool, facing his master.

"You're right, Kaynar," agreed Addicus who was standing on the right, facing Slithe. "I wonder what his blood would taste like."

Mumm-Ra looked at his two generals, Kaynar and Addicus, and shouted "No!" to them. He continued as he stared into the pool, "We capture this human, learning what technology he possesses and we will force him to train our soldiers with what fighting techniques he knows. And once he is useless, then you can eat him."

All of them started laughing, menacingly, in unison. Mumm-Ra then orders his generals to prepare the lizards for battle.

"At once, Lord Mumm-Ra," Slithe responded. Addicus, Kaynar, and Slithe ran to do what their master ordered, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

To be concluded.

Trivia:

The Song Elijah was playing was the song 'Nazo Nazo Happiness' by Milky Holmes.

The song 'Cruel Angel Thesis' by Yoko Takahashi was used as the opening for the anime, Neon Genesis Evangelion.

The word 'Divina' is Latin for divine.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: The Attack**

Three days had passed; the Thundercats have grown a friendly bond with the human, Elijah, and he, as well. Pumyra was in the living quarters, removing the patch from Lion-O's face and, also, the bandages around Tygra's waist.

"Again, I apologize for inflicting such casualties on you two," said Elijah, apologizing for the second time.

"Hey, it's okay. Look, our wounds are healed and we can put it all behind us," replied Lion in a friendly manner. Lion-O let out a mild "ow!" after having his patch removed like a band-aid by Pumyra.

"Don't be such a baby," said Pumyra as she placed both hands on her hips. She leaned closer to Lion-O's face but they were close enough not to appear intimate, and continued, "Besides, at least I get to see that cute face of yours."

Lion-O's face turned red from hearing that, which was the perfect opportunity for Tygra's snarky comments: "Well, well, you two seem to be closer than usual." He crossed his arm and legs with a sly grin on his face. "Is there anything we should know about?"

Observing their movements, Elijah responded to Tygra's comment while maintaining a stoic manner "Judging by their movements and the multiple times their faces had turned red from being in close contact with one another, I assume that they want to mate with each other."

"N-no, it's not like that!" cried Pumyra, turning around to face Elijah and blushing from his response. "I'm just being friendly!" She moved a few inches away from Lion-O. Elijah and Tygra could see Lion-O's red cheeks. Lion-O added to what Pumyra said, "S-she's right, it's nothing like that! There's nothing going on between us!"

Saying that actually hurt Pumyra a little. Frowning, her eyes stared at Lion-O for a second then back to the two in front of her, "Yeah, there's nothing going on between us. If you excuse, I'll be in my room for a while."

Pumyra left the living quarters with a sad expression on her face. Lion-O got up and followed her.

"Tell me, Elijah, does your people show any sign of emotion?" asked Tygra while looking at the human.

"Oh, yes, we do," he replied, slouching on his back with both his hands on the back of his neck and his legs crossed. "But I was trained by the military to not show my emotions because it might cloud my judgment."

Elijah continued, "Also, because of my lack of emotions, many of my brothers and sisters started calling me a robot."

Tygra let out a small chuckle from hearing that. Elijah, noticing his amusement, raised an eyebrow. "Wanna go see what the others' are doing in the control room?" Elijah asked.

He shrugged his shoulders with the reply "sure," got up from where he was sitting, and walked to the control room with Elijah by his side.

Pumyra was in her room, leaning against a wall, sitting down with her arms wrapped around her legs. She was upset. Sure, she was the one that told Tygra there was nothing going on between her and Lion-O but hearing it from Lion-O made her feel a little heartbroken.

Then a knocking sound appeared at her door. She welcomed whoever it was behind it in a quiet, yet hearable tone of voice, "Come in" and when the door open, she became angry because she saw who it was walking into her room. It was Lion-O.

"What do you want?" she shouted at her king, looking away to avoid eye-contact. "Can't you see I want to be alone?"

Lion-O was, also, upset. He knew, deep down, saying that would upset her and he wanted to make things right. Lion-O crouched in front of the puma, placing his right hand on her left shoulder and smiled. Feeling the warmth from Lion-O's hand stimulated Pumyra, making her cheeks blush crimson red.

Staring into each others' eyes, Lion-O was the first to speak. He said to her in a calm tone of voice, "Look, Pumyra, I know what I said about us not being a couple might've hurt you and I'm sorry for saying that. Do you forgive me?"

Pumyra smiled, sinisterly. Knowing her, Lion-O could tell she had something…malicious crossing her mind. She replied while caressing the lion kings' face, "Sure, I'll forgive you but on one condition."

"And what would that be, Pumyra?"

"I want you to strip naked in front of me," demanded Pumyra as both she and Lion-O stood up. "Everything you're wearing, gone and that includes your underwear."

You could tell that Lion-O was uncomfortable with Pumyra's demand but if it will make her happy, then he'll have to do it.

Lion-O sighed, murmured, "Fine, I'll do it."

20-minutes-later, Lion-O was completely nude. His clothes was on Pumyra's bed, even his undergarments were somewhere in that pile. Pumyra could see everything, making both of them fluster in embarrassment.

"Okay, I forgive you. Now, put your clothes back on before you catch a cold."

Embarrassed and humiliated, Lion-O walked out of the puma's room with his clothes on and went to the control room since that would be where Tygra and Elijah would be.

In the control room, Panthro was driving the Thundertank to their next destination. Elijah and Tygra were sitting and watching the old panther drive. Panthro didn't notice them observing him; too busy watching the dirt road. He finally noticed them and was pretty annoyed by it.

"Do you mind? I'm trying to drive!" Panthro shouted. It was a good thing his hands were still on the wheel, or else, it would've been disastrous.

"Sorry but we've got nothing else to do," Tygra retorted. "Cheetara's watching the cubs while Lion-O is…preoccupied, at the moment, in Pumyra's room."

Eyes widened, Panthro knew what Tygra meant by "preoccupied" when it involves two young cats. He replied without looking away, "Let me guess, you were teasing him about how close he and Pumyra were becoming?"

"Indeed, your guess was correct?" responded Elijah, raising an eyebrow at the panther.

Now, walking into the control room was Lion-O. Still having an embarrassing look on his face, he stood next to his brother and watched the monitors. It was then he noticed something following the Thundertank.

"Did you guys notice the airship that's following us?" asked Lion-O.

"Eh, I thought it was just some kind of bird," Tygra replied. "Maybe, if we ignore it, it'll fly pass us."

Elijah was shocked from seeing the airship on the monitor because he saw an airship like that before. Jaw dropped and trembling in fear, he started seeing horrifying flashbacks of dark figures with knifes and torturing devices, stabbing him, burning him, and skinning him alive.

"Elijah, are you okay?" Lion-O was worried by the look on Elijah's face. The human exclaimed as sweat dripped from his face, "We've got to get as far away from that thing as fast as we can!"

"Why? It's not attacking us," said Pantro. "Like Tygra said, 'If we ignore it, it'll fly pass us.'"

Elijah became hysterical, pleading for panthro to make Thundertank go faster: "No, it won't pass us! Can't you tell that's following us? Soon, it's going to destroy us and the people flying it will kill any survivors because I've seen what they're capable of!"

Tygra, stretching and lounging, asked in a skeptical manner while smiling, "And who are 'they,' Elijah?"

Before he could answer the tigers' question, the star-jet that was following the Thundertank fired a missile as a warning shot at the tanks' right side. The explosion was so powerful; it almost tipped the Thundertank to fall on its side. Its appearance was similar to a stealth bomber, except for the purple veins covering it.

Inside the star-jet, pilot was sending a message to its' superior. He spoke with a Slavic accept, possibly Russian, "This is Vladimir Sokolov, legionary pilot of the 13th century. I've found an unidentified vehicle that's emanating a mild reading of tiberium. Whoever these xenos are, they have him and the sphere. What are you orders, governor?"

"Did you fire a warning shot?" asked the governor through the comlink.

"Yes, sir, I did," replied Vladimir.

"Excellent!" The governor sounded pleased. He gave out his over, "Destroy it and if the sphere is still intact, take it and kill whoever stands in your way. Hail Brighton."

After the governor gave out his order, Vladimir wailed out "hail Brighton!" and continued following the Thundertank. It started firing ionic beams at the rails, hoping to cripple the tank.

In another part of the tank, the galley, Cheetara, Snarf, and the kittens were trying to hold on from the rumbling. Kat looked at the older female while she held onto the table, "Cheetara, what's happening to the Thundertank?"

"I don't know; I go check with the others! Snarf, you watch Wilykat and Kit while I'm gone, okay."

"Snarf!" the little creature kept rolling like a ball due to the ships rough vibrations. Cheetara lit up in a yellow light and ran to the control room to see what's going on.

He drove, turning left and right, trying to dodge every bombardment of missiles that was thrown at the Thundertank but still, it was useless.

"I'm going up there," said Elijah in a no-nonsense kind of way. "And I don't want anyone to stop me." Before he made that choice, he ran to his room and back to the control room, bringing his gauntlet with him.

"Are you crazy?" Tygra emphasized. "That 'thing' will shoot on sight if it sees you!"

Elijah was already on the latter that was connected to the hatch, he turned his head to Tygra and countered, "Have you fought a star-jet before? No, you haven't! So don't tell me I'm crazy until you see me in action!"

As he climbed up the latter and exited out of the hatch, Lion-O and Tygra followed him, thinking he would need reinforcements. Panthro joined in as well, muttering, aggressively, to himself as he switched the Thundertank to autopilot, "Mess with my baby, will they! Well, I'll show them whoever's piloting that thing!"

After Lion-O, Tygra, and Panthro climbed to the roof of the Thundertank, they spotted Elijah with his gauntlet set to 'energy sword mode' and was getting ready for battle. Lion-O and the other Thundercats soon did the same thing and took out their weapons.

The star-jet hovered over the Thundertank, turning around with its rear facing the front. Soon, the bay doors open from the rear. Out came six legionaries flying down on jet packs. They were dressed in blue armor, which was the color of the Brighton Philosophy, with the Brighton Coat of Arms on both sides of their shoulders: a capital B inside an ouroboros with a sword that resembled Excalibur piercing through the B from the stomach to the serpent's head. They wore Advanced Combat helmets with a gas mask covering their faces with a breathing tube connected to it.

This was it, the army from hell. The Thundercats have never dealt with an adversary as advanced as the Brighton Legion before, except for Elijah. Unlike Elijah and the Thundercats, the legionaries had low-tech rifles that, constantly, needed to be reloaded with rounds. The legionaries put away their rifles and, instead, took out machete-like laser swords and started charging at the Thundercats.

The Thundercats retaliated, charging at the enemy. Tygra fires his laser pistol at the one legionary charging at him but all it did was push him back, a little. It wasn't even on full power.

Lion-O sparred with two legionaries. "Two against one, now, that's not fair," he thought, blocking their attacks. Like the Spartans of Ancient Greece, the legionaries were brutal when it came to sparring. Lion-O blocked their attacks with the Sword of Omens and retaliated with such swift strikes.

Panthro, knowing he didn't have the right weapon to fight, charged anyway and took out one of them in the process but, soon, all three of the Thundercats, while fighting, saw Elijah and were shocked as to how he fought.

His skills in battle were merciless, stabbing one Brighton legionary in the shoulder with his energy blade and crippling his left knee with his right foot. Another started swinging his sword towards Elijah but he retaliated and, instead of pulling his energy blade out, he tore it out of the first legionary's shoulder, almost slicing it in half and amputated the second legionary's arm and decapitating his head. Though Lion-O's eyes, it was a bloodbath, but though Elijah's eyes, it was a bloody form of retribution. Now, now, the third one didn't seem intelligent enough to back away and, instead, leaped into the air and was preparing to strike but Elijah sucker punched him right in the chin, sending him falling to the ground on his back. Walking towards the fallen soldier, Elijah waited for him to stand up so he could have a proper battle.

He stared at him as he stood up and listened as he exclaimed, "Die! Federalist pig!" while charging and swinging his laser sword. His swordsmanship was inferior to Elijah's because with just a few swings, Elijah ended it by slicing the legionary through his waist.

The remaining three legionaries trembled in fear with one of them shouting to the others, "Let's get the hell out of here." They flew back to the star-jet on their jetpacks, fearing Elijah and his brutal swordsmanship skills but before they entered their ship, Elijah threw something at them and it clamped on the back of one legionary.

Aboard their ship, one legionary pleaded that they needed reinforcements to deal with the xenos but before the pilot, Vladimir, could argue, he started hearing a loud beeping sound.

"Do you hear something?" asked Vladimir, looking around the room to see where that beeping was coming from. He turned and noticed something was on one soldiers' back, blinking red and blinked faster with every minute. "Jesus Christ! It's a…!" before he could finish his sentence, the bomb went off, blowing the entire ship to kingdom come.

Through Elijah's point-of-view, seeing the Brighton star-jet destroyed was like a fireworks display. Before he walked back inside the Thundertank, Elijah felt something grabbing his left leg. He looked down and saw and amputated Legionary, crawling on his hands, clinging to his leg while, quickly, bleeding to death. When he, finally, reached the point of irritation, Elijah tossed the dying legionary over the Thundertank, falling to the dirt road and screaming his last breath.

Lion-O, Tygra, and Panthro were shocked and amazed by Elijah's antics. As he climbed down the latter and entered the control, Elijah began murmuring to himself, "Oh, this is bad, this is bad. How could they be here on Third-Earth? Of course, the tiberium trails from my ship. They must've followed it to here."

Lion-O stood behind Elijah and shouted, excitingly, "Killing three guys at once, Elijah, that's impressive but couldn't we have, at least, reasoned with them?" Lion-O was naïve about the situation but Elijah was experienced with the situation, dealing with those soldiers in the past.

"Yeah, but thanks to him, I'm going to have to clean blood off my baby's roof," Panthro muttered. Tygra saw how disturbed Elijah was: walking back and forth with eyes as wide as an owls'. He places an arm on his shoulder and commented: "Hey, cheer up. You got rid of them all and they won't be coming back, whoever they were…"

Elijah interrupted Tygra, grabbing him by the collar with both hands and pressing his back against the wall. What Tygra said didn't cheer the human up because he knew that wasn't the end, "…Now, you listen to me, you arrogant tiger; that was just a scouting party! More will come and when they do, all hell would break loose!"

"What did Elijah do?" Cheetara, finally, responded.

Tygra turned his head towards his mate and answered her question, "Six people dressed as soldiers fell out of an airship and tried to attack us. I saw Elijah kill three of them with my own eyes. When they retreated, he threw some sort of bomb at them and destroyed the entire ship."

From hearing that, Cheetara covered her mouth in shock.

Elijah saw the expressions on their faces. He sighed and responded while releasing Tygra, "Look, I'm sorry that I dragged you' all into this. I've faced them before and what they do is beyond the psyche of the subconscious mind."

Panthro replied to that statement with both arms crossed, "What do you mean by dragging us into this? Who were those guys?"

Leaning against the wall, Elijah started rubbing his temples to calm his nerves. He explained everything to his friends: "Somewhere in the Delta quadrant of the galaxy, there is a planet, an imperial planet where oppression and tyranny reside. That planet is called Brighton, also called the 'World of Sadists and Psychos' by Federalists as a joke."

Lion-O didn't like the sound of it. A planet of psychos and sadists, who would ever live on such a place? The lion king wanted to hear. "Is that where those soldiers came from, Elijah?" inquired Lion-O.

Elijah responded, "Yes, that's where they came from." He continued explaining, "You see, those soldiers were Brighton legionaries, the infantry soldiers of the Brighton Legion, the military force of the Brighton Empire." He gave Lion-O an innocent glare; then added. "Now, back to the planet: Hovering over the clouds, a floating fortress made out of marble and gold ruled both the surface and the sky. Inside the fortress was a city and inside the city was a palace and inside the palace was a throne made out of metal and steam, and sitting on the throne is a man, covered in wires and with plastic tubes sticking out of his back, pumping fluids in and out, keeping him alive and immortal. That man, that unholy thing, is the Emperor of the Brightons, Charles Brighton."

"So…the planet's named after their Emperor?" inquired Tygra, raising his left eyebrow in inquiry.

Elijah looked away from Lion-O and at his older brother. He replied while maintaining a stoic expression, "Yes and he has been ruling the planet, and the other planets in the Beta quadrant, for 5 centuries, after the Great Diaspora."

He sighed and continued, "I have seen them conquer worlds, commit acts of xenocide, and enslave alien species they would view as 'useful.'"

"Wait, wait; wait! Are you saying that these Brightons are human?" Pumyra questioned. Elijah did not deny that they were human, replying, "As much as I hate to admit, yes, they're human."

"But that means you killed your own people," said Cheetara. Hearing that, Elijah banged his fist at the wall.

"They're not my people. They're nothing but a bunch of lunatics following the ideas of a bigger lunatic," He led out a small chuckle and added, "The Brightons are nothing but a scourge to this galaxy. The Terran Federation has been at war with them for 400 years and we'll continue our war until one side is victorious."

"So the Brighton Empire is one the human factions?" Wilykat commented.

Before Elijah could respond, Wilykit looked at her brother and asked, "What are you talking about, Kat?"

"Elijah told me that his people are separated in factions, warring organizations, fighting over for that sphere Elijah has, which only Elijah knows what it does."

He didn't mean to lie but Kat promised Elijah that he wouldn't tell the others the truth of the human's knowledge on the sphere. As the explanation continued, the Thundertank, automatically, stopped. The motion of it stopping shook the Thundercats, including Elijah.

"Panthro, go check and see why we stopped," ordered Lion-O.

The panther nodded and walked over to the windshield to see what was in front of them. It was a bad thing to see. So bad, the Thundercats were glad they were prepared. In front of them, an army of lizards blocked their path, 2-miles-away from where they were. Leading them was Mumm-Ra's generals: Slithe, Kaynar, and Addicus.

Slithe was watching for any signs of the Thundertank through his binoculars. He didn't know they were on a hill and couldn't see very well because of the sand that was blowing in the wind.

"Hoo-hoo, when do you think they'll come, Slithe? I can't wait to fight those, blasted, Thundercats," asked Addicus.

"I can't wait to feast on their remains," Kaynar added, giving a wicked laugh as he finished.

Slithe removed his binoculars from his face and replied with a crooked grin, "Patience, my friends, we'll wait 'til they show. Then we'll attack them when they appear and you two can enjoy tearing them apart."

Back at the Thundertank, Lion-O stared at the large army while talking to his general. Panthro crossed his mechanical arms and sighed, stressfully, "This is going to get ugly for us."

"At least we'll go down fighting," Lion-O added. He turned his head to his brother and said in a stern manner, "Tygra, grab whatever's in the armory."

The tiger nods his head. Ran and grabbed whatever he needed in the armory. Elijah volunteered to tag along; Lion-O's going to need as many friends to fight this battle.

Standing outside of the Thundertank, the Thundercats were ready for battle but before the battle commenced, a loud, sound came from the sky. "Is it me or does anyone else hear buzzing?" asked Wilykat.

Elijah recognized the sound. It was the sound of star-jet engines, which was similar to the buzzing, flapping wings of wasps. Elijah turned south and moved back about two inches, pointing and shouting "hornets!" making the other Thundercats turn to his direction. Jaws dropped, Lion-O and his companions were surprised by what they were seeing: Three star-jets like the one that attacked the Thundertank, except bigger and with a hornet-like appearance.

Flying over the lizard army, the pilot in the middle star-jet began announcing to the lizards in a threatening, yet reasonable manner: "Xenos surrender the Federalist, Elijah, and the sphere to us and we will be on our way! Failure to comply would be considered unwise and will result in death!"

After that was announced, the lizards looked at one another. Then they all started laughing. Slithe, with a sinister smile, looked up and shouted at the three star-jets, "You think you can make threats like that to us! Look around, I and comrades have an army and what do you have, hmmm?"

The star-jets soon started to land on the desert sand, facing south with the backside facing the lizard army.

"This isn't going to be a fair fight," Tygra stated.

"How do you know?" asked Lion-O.

"Well, um, because we saw how many soldiers dropped out of that airship and it can be assume that if six dropped out of one airship, then eighteen will come out of all three," Tygra's opinion was flawed, in which Elijah pointed out, "Your assumption may be correct to a Brighton scouting party but not to a battle cruiser. Watch and you'll see what happens."

As the ships' bay doors open, a division appeared out of each star-jet, joining together and forming an army, followed by bulky, heavily-armored tanks from behind. From seeing their increasing number, Tygra's jaw dropped, meaning he was wrong, which he hated to admit.

oooooo

As they marched out of their battle cruisers, they' all stopped and formed a line, holding semi-automatic rifles and machine guns in their hands. Slithe was speechless from seeing an army that was larger than his. An opening appeared in the middle of the army, making way for a well-decorated military officer. As he walked out of the opening, the soldiers reformed the line, closing the opening. The military officer was standing face-to- face, 3-miles-away from the lizard general.

Like all Brighton Legionaries, the color of the military officer's uniform was blue. He wore a silver cuirass on his chest, black boots, and silver gauntlets with claw-tipped fingers covering his hands. Odd about him was that he was wearing a bull-like skull on his right shoulder, a primitive, leather utility belt around his waist, and a crimson cape around his neck. He had bronze skin, indicating he was of Polynesian descent. He had black hair with hazel eyes and had a muscular physique.

He shouted in a loud, booming voice, so loud that it echoed into the heavens, "Reptilian xenos, we are here for a man who goes by the name 'Elijah!' I know you are harboring him and we wish you bring him to us, at once, or else, there will be serious consequences!"

Slithe, finally, responded, feeling offended by his threat, "And who are you to make such a demand, stranger!"

"I am Gaius Aelius Aquilinus, Legatus of this army!" the legate replied, placing his right hand on the center of his chest. He continued, "Who, pray tell, am I addressing myself to?"

"I am Slithe, general of Mumm-Ra's army! The one on my left is Addicus, and the one on my right is Kaynar, two of Mumm-Ra's other generals!" Slithe introduced himself, as well, as addressing the other generals, Addicus and Kaynar. "We are, also, looking for the human, Elijah! Since you have a powerful army, why not we join forces to find him?"

The legate did not respond. On his face was a stoic expression, similar to Elijah's, except for the aggressive eyebrows. He, questionably, retorted, "You dare have the audacity to propose an alliance, reptilian?"

"Of course," Slithe had no idea what he was getting himself into. Having no knowledge of the Bright Empire, he would think making an alliance with them would be a piece of cake, but he was wrong.

Aelius smiled in amusement, letting out a slight chuckle before replying to his proposal. He returned the idea with a menacing grin, "You think that we, the Brighton Legion, would ever make an alliance with filthy xenos, not to mention an alliance with a fat reptile, a barbaric ape, and a, um…psychotic jackal?"

That comment enraged the three generals. Arguments flew back and forth until both Aelius and slithe shouted "Attack!" in unison.

oooooo

As the battle between the Brightons and the lizards was about to commence, the Thundercats observed the beginning of the brawl from behind the star-jets. It was a good thing the Thundertank was parked on a hill. That way, they could, easily, see all the action at a distance.

"Isn't there a way we could prevent this from happening?" Lion-O felt stress from seeing the two sides charging at each other.

"Nope, can't be done," Elijah answered Lion-O's question while he nodded his head in disagreement. "Once the Brightons start their battle, it won't end until one side is victorious."

The human held out his hand in a "look away" stance to Cheetara, Pumyra, and the Wilys. He didn't look at them and continued staring at the battle: "Women and children look away! You do not want my nightmares!"

"But—," Pumyra exclaimed.

"Now!" Elijah roared. They did what he said and looked away, covering the cubs' eyes and closing their eyes as the battle began. You could hear the screams of pain coming from the battlefield: Brightons and lizards firing their rifles at each other, Tanks firing their rounds at the warbots, and vice-versa.

"Whiskers!" Lion-O exclaimed. "We've got to do something before this gets out of hand!"

"Keep your voice down! Do you want them to hear you?" Elijah whispered. He respected Lion-O's belief of peace but had to decline the idea. "Look, Lion-O, if the lizards and the Bright continue fighting, they'll soon learn that they are, equally, matched and they'll retreat and regroup. Thus, we won't see them 'til another time." The human made a point and that point went through Lion-O's head. Even though they were shielded by the Brighton star-jets, it didn't do any good protecting them because, even though the battle was loud, the two sides could hear Elijah and Lion-O's argument. Elijah saw how some of them, the one's not fighting each other, were looking at them. "Oh crap, they see us."

oooooo

"There they are!" shouted a lizard soldier. He was close enough to see the Thundertank, even with all the sand flying in the air.

The legate, Aelius, turned his head and squinted to the point where he could see Elijah and the Thundercats standing in front of the armored vehicle. The surprising part was that he looking at them while battling Addicus. He was strong enough to stop the big ape from attacking by grabbing the top of his club before it could pummel him into the ground. With all his might, the legate judo flips Addicus to the ground.

He stares at General Slithe and shouts in a bitter, yet disgusted, tone of voice, "all right, General Slithe, I change my mind! I accept your proposal but, in return, I want whatever Elijah has in possession! You can have whatever you want from him, or whatever is left of him! Do we have a deal?"

The general did not respond, not yet, anyway. He felt joy surging through his body, smiling with glee. The lizard, finally, responds, "Indeed, we have a deal!" With the addition of humans and their technology in Mumm-Ra's army, they would step closer to controlling Third-Earth. That was the Idea accumulating in Slithe's head. He noticed that Aelius had spotted the Thundercats, as well. He continued, "I see that you've spotted the Thundercats! You have a good sense of sight, human!"

As soon as they walked towards each other and shook hands, they ordered their men to charge at the hill where the Thundertank was parked.

oooooo

Surprised, both Lion-O and Elijah looked at each other in awe. They never thought that both their enemies would ally themselves, making Elijah star at the stampede with his right eyebrow raised and with his left hand scratching the back of his head, commenting on the situation: "Huh, didn't see that coming." He turned to Lion-O and saw that he was doing the same thing: scratching and raising and eyebrow. "What about you, Lion-O? Did you see this coming?"

"No I did not."

Lion-O was quick to come up with a plan. "Panthro, head back to the tank! We need the missiles for this situation!" he ordered.

Panthro ran and entered the tank. He sat in the driver's seat and activated the missile launchers, aiming it at the lizards. As the lizards and the Brighton legionaries stampeded up the hill, Elijah and the Thundercats prepared themselves for battle.

"Well, I guess this is the end: Standing on a hill, about to be stomped to death by an army of humans and lizards," commented Tygra.

Wilykit was standing beside Lion-O, face turning red and was about to say something, "Lion-O, I want you to know that…well, for the past months I've spent with the Thundercats…I…I—."

"—Wait, Kit, before you say anything, I just remembered something," Elijah interrupted Wilykit, looking at the king with a realized look on his face. "Remember those explosives Tygra got from the armory?"

"Yes, what about them?"

With just mentioning that, Lion-O twisted towards Tygra and ordered him to throw the explosives at the army. Tygra nodded, though, as usual, doubting that his brother's plan would work. In his right hand were five explosive packs strung together by a 3-foot-long fuse. It was pretty low-tech and looked ancient. Tygra bought it, yesterday, in an evabon settlement. Tygra looked at the human and retorted, "Okay, but how am I suppose to light the fuse without any matches?"

"Oh, just give it to me," Elijah demanded.

Tygra hands the explosives to Elijah. With one press of a button, a built-in lighter pops out of the front. He lights the fuse and tosses it into the air, flying towards the front of the army. Boom! It was as loud as thunder and as powerful as lightning. Half of the army that was up front fell and died but that's not all. From the explosion, and avalanche of boulders rolled and crushed many of them, causing them to flee for their lives.

Inside the Thundertank, Panthro was pressing a lot of buttons, activating the missile launchers and when he activated them, he launched every missile at the tanks and warbots, causing them to fall like a dead tree. Many Brighton legionaries returned to their ships and flew off, leaving their legate behind. It was very dishonorable of them, leaving their commanding officer behind.

The lizards shouted "retreat!" while the Brightons yelled "fall back!" that did not pleased their leaders. Ironically, even though Slithe, Kaynar, and Addicus were angry at the defeat, Aelius ran towards the Thundercats direction, passing through the crowd of soldiers with quick speed. He was fast but not as fast as Cheetara.

He stopped in front of the hill, looked up, and stared at Elijah. He shouted at the captain, getting his attention, "You there, Elijah!"

"Yes, what is it that you want?" Elijah asked.

"I am Gaius Aelius Aquilinus, Legatus of this army and request an audience with!" the legates' mannerisms were very 'admirable,' even for a Brighton. "I was sent by my commander, Governor Abdul Muhib, to capture you and bring him the sphere! When he explained to me about you he didn't tell me you were a divina, the peacekeepers of the Terran Federation!"

"Tell me, Aelius, what are you going to do now since your army has abandoned you?"

"Never underestimate the Brighton Legion, Elijah! If one Brighton legionary retreats a battle, 10 more will come to take his place! We will return and we will kill all of you and take the sphere from you!" the legate clutched his fists in front of them, scaring only the cubs. Elijah retorted, loudly, "The only way you're getting the sphere is if you remove it from my cold, dead hands!"

Silence fell on the legate, not saying a single word for about 12 seconds. On his face, he gave out a malicious grin and mutters," So be it, then!" he walks away towards General Slithes' direction. He hopped on their hover platforms, tagging along with them and wanting them to take him to their leader, Mumm-Ra.

The lizard and Brighton threat was over, for now. Back inside the Thundertank, Thundercats were in the living quarters, relaxing and taking a break from the day they just had. Lion-O and Elijah were sharing conversations on the situations. The lion king asked the human, "So the Lizards and the Brightons are allies now. Do you think it would last?"

"I doubt it," Elijah replied. "This isn't the first time the Brightons made alliances with other sentient beings. The last time they did so was at the battle of Tar and after they won, they vaporized the natives and claimed the planet as their own."

"That's horrible!" exclaimed Cheetar, sitting in front of the two while Tygra's arm was wrapped around her waist.

"My mentor, General Salveas Amon,once said this: 'A true soldier shows honor by keeping his word and not to harm those who are defenseless. Soldiers who do not show honor are not soldiers but sales, dégoûtants; demi-culs porcs avec des bites Minuscules.'"

"And that means?" asked Tygra.

"Trust me, you don't want to know," Elijah waved his right hand to decline translating what he said. This was a weird day, indeed, for the Thundercats have met an enemy not from this world.

To be concluded.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6:**

**Unholy Alliance**

Hovering over the lands of Third-Earth, General Slithe and his men were 5-miles-away from the Black Pyramid.

"What is he doing," asked one of the lizard soldiers, staring at the legate, Aelius, as he sat on his knees with his, gloveless, hands over his eyes.

"I don't know, maybe he's meditating," replied the other lizard soldier. "Humans sure are weird."

Aelius was not meditating but praying. On the back of his hands were tattoos of eyes, making it look like he was staring at the sun while he murmured prayers: "Imperator magnus est, Imperator fortis est, Imperator dues est…" over and over, again, in Latin.

The legate kept praying until the platform, finally, arrived at its destination. Slithe walked up to the human and disrupted his prayer by alerting him, saying, "You there, human, we've arrived. Come with us and meet our master."

Aelius stopped praying and placed his gauntlets back onto his hands. He stood up off the floor and walked off the platform.

They walked down a long corridor. He was amazed at the architecture, ancient on the outside while advanced on the inside. The legate stood beside Slithe, asking him questions about his master. Who is he? What does he want with Elijah? And how he knew about his presence?

The lizard general responded with a grin hanging on his face, "All questions will be answered, soon." The legate was patient enough to wait.

The three generals took the legate into a large room. Inside, he stared at the four, humanoid statues with the heads of four different animals: A jackal, a lizard, a monkey, and a vulture. In the center of where the statues stood was a pool filled with blue water and at the head of that pool was a throne with a giant, pharaoh-like face above it. Standing in front of the pool was a figure, hunching over the pool, wearing a red cloak and was covered in bandages.

Aelius walked up and stood behind the figure, standing straight with an emotionless facial expression. "Are you the one these three call 'Mumm-Ra?'" asked Aelius.

"Indeed, I am," replied Mumm-Ra. "And who is it that asks for my name?"

Before the legate could say anything, Mumm-Ra turned around, facing the human, and from seeing the mummy's decaying features, he became shocked but still, he responded while trying to ignore Mumm-Ra's disfigurement, "I am Gaius Aelius Aquilinus, Legatus of the Brighton Legion. I came here to form a proper alliance with you and your followers, hoping to help you with your…pest problems and by pests, I mean cats."

"I see but where is your army, Aelius?" Mumm-Ra questioned. Aelius, subconsciously, gripped his hands. He knew that he would have some subordinates in his army but he didn't realize that they were all cowards. He released his grip and answered the mummy's question, "I assure you, my legionaries are here on this planet." He explained to Mumm-Ra about the situation, "You see, they have retreated to the Leviathan, the ship that brought us here and that's now orbiting the planet. After seeing how fierce your enemies and my enemy are, together, they abandoned me and flew back to the Leviathan but don't worry, they will receive punishment for their insubordination."

"And how will you be contacting them?"

"Believe me, Mumm-Ra. I have many ways of contacting them."

He stood outside, standing in front of the Black Pyramid, feeling the sandy wind against his face. Mumm-Ra and his generals: Slithe, Kaynar, and Addicus watched as the human took out a metallic device from the utility belt around his waist. It shape like a spintop, except there was no stick sticking out of the top, with glowing, white veins all over it. With one press of a button on the top, he placed it on the ground and stood a 2-feet-away from it. The top opened and out of it was a beam of blue light, piecing through the sky.

Ironically, the three generals were frightened by it even though they had unlimited access to technology of their own. Mumm-Ra smiled, feeling intrigued by the light show he was receiving. A few-seconds-later, the Leviathan appeared out of the sky and hovering above the Black Pyramid. The design of the Leviathan was less demented, yet more technologically advanced, than the Black Pyramid.

Coming out of the Leviathan, a small ship with three wings, two on the sides and one on top, came down and landed in from of the legate. After it landed, the bay doors opened from the bottom and coming out of the ship was the governor, himself, while being accompanied by two Praetorian Guards.

The legate walked up to the governor and took a knee, greeting him with such flattery, "Governor Abdul-Muhib, it is a pleasure to see you, again."

"You flattery pleases me, legatus," the governor comment, flamboyantly, waving his hand like an aristocrat. "But keep it up and you'll never reach the rank of dux. Remember, nobody likes a sycophant."

The governor walks passed the legate and stood in front of Mumm-Ra and added without facing his legate, "And I see you are associating with xenos, Aelius."

"Yes, well, you see, it seems Elijah has allied himself with the planet's indigenous inhabitants, feline-humanoids, to be precise, who were able to cripple my forces." Explained the legate, noticing how tensed the governor became from hearing that. Aelius continued, "I believe if we ally ourselves with their enemies, then the tables would turn and we would be able to defeat them and take the sphere."

"Hmm, the enemy of my enemy is my friend," quoted the governor. He, soon, turned towards the legate and said as he placed a hand on his right shoulder, "What a brilliant plan you've forged, legatus. Someday, you will make an excellent dux. Now, if you wouldn't mind, I need to inform the other men that we'll be spending a few days in a pyramid filled with talking animals."

The governor soon realized how ridiculous that sounded and added, "Okay, that sounded, mildly, unnerving." He walked back into his ship with the Praetorian Guard behind him and returned to the Leviathan. 5-hours-later, the Black Pyramid was packed with both humans and lizards. It was a good thing the Pyramid had enough room, or else, it would've felt cramped.

"Give me your best shot Hoo-Hoo!" roared Addicus. He was standing in a chalk-drawn circle, facing the legate, Aelius, preparing to strike with his axe.

Many people gathered, both human and lizard, to watch, cheering and betting on who was going to win. Before the big ape could strike, Aelius placed his left hand in front of his chest, clenching it and pointed it to the ground on his left side. Out of his gauntlet, a blade appears out of the back of his wrist. The brawl began. Addicus and Aelius charged at each other, striking with both weapons.

On different sides, Aelius stood up and retracted his blade while Addicus fell on one knee as his right pelvis started to bleed. It wasn't a serious injury. Aelius, simply, grazed the gorilla. After the brawl, the lizards started paying the legionaries in guns and ammunition.

Down the corridor, Mumm-Ra and Abdul-Muhib started sharing conversations. He wasn't disturbed by the fact that he was talking to a living corpse. "This is a strange place, Mumm-Ra. On the outside, it looks like an ancient pyramid but on the inside, it looks like a high-tech facility. Tell me, was this ever a spaceship?" the governor asks with both arms behind his back.

"Indeed it was, until my commander, Leo, betrayed me and crash land my ship centuries ago, immobilizing it to prevent me from leaving this planet if I return," answered Mumm-Ra. He responded to that answer, having experienced the same thing, "I, too, was betrayed by someone but it wasn't a commander...no. It was some I was close to; someone I once called 'brother.' but that is a story I do not want to get into."

Before they could continue their conversation, the governor was interrupted by a Brighton legionary, running in front of him to get his attention. "My liege!" shouted the legionary. "We found him, the coward that called the retreat."

"Excellent!" the governor didn't show it but you could tell he was smiling behind that bandana of his. Somewhere in the Black Pyramid, in the dungeon room, many Brighton Legionaries were rallying up for some sort of occurrence. Joining them was Mumm-Ra and his three generals, joining to see what was going on.

Thrown into the center of the rally was a tribunus laticlavus, tied up and shaking in fear. He sat and stared at the governor, seeing the anger in his eyes. "Please, master, grant me mercy! I beg of you!" the tribunus laticlavus pleaded.

"Mercy? For a weakling like you?" the governor retorted. "You called in a retreat, you deserted a battle, and you plead for mercy." the governor crouched down, staring at the officer, face-to-face, whispering in a malicious tone of voice: "There is no mercy to grant for the weak."

The governor stood up, back away, and was about to give out a speech: "My people, children of the Emperor! This man—this coward—is responsible for our defeat! Nowhere in history have the Brightons run from a fight! And furthermore, he broke the chain-of-command!" the legionaries were filled with rage against the coward. Who knew the governor was that charismatic? He continued: "Let us remove this tumor from our ranks and sew up the wound we removed it from!"

they all cheered, taking out their batons and walked towards the tribunus laticlavus. The tribunus screamed as he was about to be beaten to death, "Brothers, no!" this was the act of fustuarium. The governor, himself watched while he stood next to Mumm-Ra, you could tell he was enjoying the scene. Mumm-Ra, Addicus, and Kaynar were, also, enjoying the scene as well, hearing the legionaries chant "fustuarium" out loud while waving their batons in the air. The only ones not enjoying it were the lizard soldiers, showing deep fear towards the humans' method of punishment, Slithe, showing disgust at such a barbaric ritual, and the legate, knowing that he didn't deserve such a major punishment.

After it was over, Aelius walked and stood in the center. Blood was spilled, the tribunus wasn't dead but he was, slowly, dying. With what little strength he had left, the tribunus, etaphorically, reached out to his superior, pleading for mercy. The legate looked away in guilt and responded with such sorrow in his voice, "I am sorry but, even though we are amici, you are now a traitor and the deed is already done."

As soon as the legate walked away, the tribunus breathed his last breath and died with his eyes and mouth wide open. The tribunus' body was tossed out of the Black Pyramid, slowing, sinking into the sand, never to be seen again. The legate took a stroll inside the Pyramid, contemplating on his moral regrets. Did he do the Right thing? Was it okay to let his amicus die or was it wrong to not have been able to defend him?

oooooo

the corridor of the Thundertank was dark and hard to see. Returning from the bathroom, Kit headed back to her room. Even though Kit could, barely, see where she was going, her senses were strong enough in helping her find her room. She then stops and stood in front of Lion-O's room. Looking down, she could see the lights in the lion king's room were not turned off, indicating that he was still awake.

She opens the door and waltzes in to see Lion-O sitting on his bed, legs crossed and reading Elijah's Earth History book. "You're still reading that book?" inquired Kit.

"Oh, hey Kit. Yeah, it's a big book so it'll take me a while to finish," Lion-O replied. Kit sat on his bed looked over her king's shoulder to see what he's reading about. "Chapter 6: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Rome." the young wildcat thought that was a weird name for a chapter but she just shrugged and just looked.

Kit noticed that it didn't have many pictures, just a few portraits, which made her feel bored. Lion-O, on the other hand, thought it was interesting.

"What's the point in reading this?" asked Kit.

"Well, Since we have a human as an ally, I thought it would be interesting to learn about Elijah's people," Lion-O explained. "Besides, As far as I've gotten from this book, The human race has a unique, yet violent, history."

"Who's the guy in the robes and why is he pointing up?"

Lion-O looked at the figure Kit was referring to and read it to her: "Augustus Caesar, first Emperor of Rome, from 27 B.C. To 14 A.D." he continued reading out loud, "It says that he was the great nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar, General and Dictator of the Roman Republic, from 49 B.C. To 44 B.C."

Wilykit didn't seem very fond of history but she was happy to be beside her king. 20-minutes-later, Wilykit headed back to her room, however, it was hard to tell where her bed was. Good thing her brother's snoring helped her. She lied down on her bed and when she did, Kit, immediately, fell asleep.

She started having dreams about Lion-O, running and playing in a field of flowers. Then, while lying on the ground, both Lion-O and Kit leaned in for a kissed, which caused her to wake up. She saw that it was morning. The sun was shining out of her window and the bird-frogs were chirping outside.

She sat up, wrapping her arms around her shins, asking herself while her face blushed, "I wish it was like that."

Kit soon realized that her brother might've heard her but she was relieved when she noticed he wasn't in the room. He must have woken up early before she did.

"No arguing in the dojo!" shouted a loud, commanding voice. Elijah was walking back and forth, wearing a white tunic with a black belt around the waist.

"Oh, come on! I'm not arguing; I was just asking if there was an easier way to learn this," Tygra pleaded. He was dressed the same way as Elijah, except, instead of a black belt, he was wearing a white belt.

"No complaining in the dojo!" Elijah shouted, again.

"I don't even know what a dojo is!" Tygra emphasized.

"Enough!" Elijah grabs Tygra by the arms and judo flips him to the ground. He looks at the tiger and says to him with a stern face, "Never show such disrespect to your sensei!" he moves his sight away from Tygra and looks at the others: Wilykat and Panthro. "And that goes for all of you, as well!"

"Yes, sensei!" Wilykat and Panthro replied in unison.

It was their first time learning human martial arts. They didn't understand the rules or the terminologies, like sensei or dojo, but they were learning. After training, Wilykat asked Elijah to come with him.

Wilykat was in the corridor, walking beside the human, Elijah. He wanted to show him something that he'd been hiding from the others. He hid what he wanted to show Elijah in the storage room. Moving a few boxes, Kat pulled out a bag.

"And for what, pray tell, was the purpose of showing me a sack?" asked Elijah, crossing his arms and raising his right eyebrow.

"This, my friend, is the Forever Bag. It's a magical bag with the power of infinite space," explained Kat. He continued: "You see, along time ago, it once belong to a powerful wizard until it was stolen by Mesclabar, the King of Thieves. Over the years, many thieves have stolen this bag from other thieves, that is, until my sister and I 'borrowed' it from a thief named Tookit."

He opens the sack and yells out the secret word: "Rokenbass!" Next thing you'd now, he jumped in and disappeared. The sight of it baffled Elijah, holding the bag and looking around it to see if it was a trick but it wasn't.

"Umm...Rokenbass!" Elijah repeated what Kat said and soon, he got sucked into the bag without any warning.

Falling, he thought it was the end for him; seeing his life flash before his eyes: Awakening from a test tube, being assigned to a foster family during infancy, being sent to the Academy at the age of twelve, Vincent's betrayal, Caldrak 5, the Battle of Centuari Prime, and the Arrival to Third-Earth. But, as luck would have it, a pile of jewels and gold broke his fall, which wasn't a soft landing, if you think about it.

"Huh...electrum," Elijah picked up a gold coin and observed the context. "What is this place." He got up off the pile and looked around in astonishment.

"Hello, Elijah, and welcome to the inside of the Forever Bag!" Greeted Kat, standing in front of the human.

The human looked at Kat with a jaw-dropped look. He pushed his jaw back up and asked, "How long have you had this?"

"Oh, for a few days," Kat Replied. "I put it in the storage room for safe keeping but then I forgot about it."

There was so much treasure in the Forever bag. Elijah started commenting out loud: "Look at all this! It's like I'm inside the treasure room of the lost city of Atlantis!"

Wilykat didn't know what Elijah was talking about but he just shrugged and didn't ask. For the first time, Wilykat had never seen Elijah this excited, nor have the other Thundercats. It was like watching a 12-year-old getting a new toy on Christmas Day.

As Elijah continued acting like a kid, he turned and remembered that Kat was, also in the bag, which caused the human to revert back to his usual, stoic self. He let out a small cough with his left hand over his mouth and said to the kitten, "Sorry about that." It was a strange personality change to witness, which was sad because Wilykat was starting to like the childish Elijah better than the robotic Elijah. "So, do the others know about this...item or is it just you and your sister?" Elijah asked, looking at the cub with both of his arms crossed.

"Just my sister and me," Wilykat answered, waving his right hand nonchalantly. "I was going to show it to the others but why let them have all the fun. Also, because I forgot I had it." the young cub rolled his eyes and kicked the dust from the ground, asking without hesitation, "So, why are you training us? I know you said I wasn't old enough for Kung Fu but then you changed your mind."

"I am preparing you and the others against the Brightons," sighed Elijah.

"Why? I've only seen them, once, and they don't seem that bad," retorted Kat.

"There are things about my encounter with the Brightons I have not told you, or the others, about," The stoic expression on Elijah's face disappeared, replacing it with a sad look. He added without looking at the cub, "Things that would tremble the entire Galaxy in fear and disgust."

Wilykat scratched the back of his head, thinking of what to say next. Kat, finally, made a response and insisted: "Maybe, you should discuss it with the others and maybe-"

"The things I've experienced from them are for me to keep to myself! Understand!" Elijah interrupted Wilykat with a loud voice, scaring the young cub. The human wanted to leave, asking "Who do I get out of this bag" in which Wilykat answered: "See that light up there? Well, all you have to do is stand in the center of it, jump, and you'll be out of here."

Elijah walked away and did what Wilykat said. He stood in the center of the light and jumped up in the air. Next thing you know it, he started flooding up to the ceiling.

3-seconds-later, Elijah pops out of the bag, flying out and falling to the floor. He got up off the floor, brushing the dust off his clothes and walked out of the storage room.

Feeling the pain surging through him, Tygra started rubbing his left arm, then the other, muttering how humiliated he felt to himself: "Stupid Elijah and his martial arts. Can't believe I got flipped by a guy with an average physique."

Lion-o, Kit, and Pumyra overheard what Tygra was saying and laughed, quietly, making sure he wouldn't hear their laughter.

"Don't worry, Tygra. At least, he didn't break your arms," said Cheetara, walking and sitting down next to her mate. "Besides, if he does, how else are you suppose to hold me?" wrapping her arms around him, Cheetara and Tygra looked into each others' eyes, intimately, making Lion-O feel uncomfortable watching.

The sight of it made Lion-O's stomach twist but he kept ignoring it because he's trying to move on, but that was going to be a tough one. Next thing you know, the couple's intimacy was interrupted when Elijah entered the control room, causing Tygra to jump up out of his chair and walked up to the human. "Hey! I have a bone to pick with you!" Shouted Tygra, shaking his right fist in front of his face. "What person flips a guy to the ground for asking questions?"

"The same guy who teaches a prideful tiger the art of patience," Elijah retorted in a stoic manner. What Elijah said made Tygra speechless and the only thing coming out of his mouth were mumbling sounds.

Walking into the control room, as well, was Panthro, holding a Brighton helmet in his mechanical paws. "Hey, Elijah!" called Panthro. Elijah turns around towards the general, wanting to know what he wanted. "What do you think? We can put this on the training dummy, along with the rest of the armor, and you can teach us any weak spots those legionaries have." Panthro throws the helmet to Elijah, grabbing it and looking, directly, at the eye holes.

There was nothing but a wide stare coming from Elijah's eyes. Eyes twitching, he started having flashbacks from first experience with the Brightons, 5-years-ago.

Flashback:

It was a 12:45AM in the morning, as it was written on the digital clock on Elijah's ship, the Avenger. He was assigned by his superiors to patrol the Sirius Star System; monitoring everything that occurred. Walking into the bridge was his 'sister' Isabella Mendoza.

She was beautiful woman in her twenties with a slim figure and kind demeanor. She had long, flowing black hair that reached down to her waist, bronze skin, and was about 6-foot-tall, short by two feet. Like Elijah, she was also a Divina. You could tell because she had the same eyes as Elijah's. She was wearing the same stillsuit as Elijah's, except the one she was wearing was design for female Divina only.

"So any sign of the Brightons yet?" asked Isabella, placing her right arm on Elijah's seat.

"Negative, Isabella. There's nothing but stars and planets out there."

"Well, if you see anything, give me a call, okay"

"I'll do that."

Isabella was about to leave the room but not before she did her usual flirting Elijah gesture. She leaned forward, placing her lips close to Elijah's left ear and whispered, seductively: "You know, if you ever get bored, you'll know where to find me." And just like that, she blow into his ear and walked to the exit. She turned her head to see if there any response from Elijah. Sadly, it was the same thing, as usual. Elijah was still looking at the monitor with no sign of any reaction, which brought disappointment in her system.

Just then, as Isabella left the bridge, something appeared on the monitor. Coming from the darkest part of the Sirius Star System, a Leviathan appeared out of nowhere but it was a different Leviathan. Not the one piloted by the governor, Abdul-Muhib, but by someone far worse than any other Brighton official but not as worse as the emperor, himself.

The bored expression on Elijah's face, quickly, changed to that of fear and inexperience. It was his first time seeing a Leviathan and it was going to be his first time facing the Brightons. The only time he had ever faced a Brighton was in a simulation at the Academy but that was about to change.

With athletic speed, Elijah got out of his seat and got ready for battle stations. Using his communicator, he contacted the rest of the crew throughout the ship, ordering them to their stations. "Come in, captain! This is first lieutenant, Elijah Robertson! Can you hear me!" he ordered, feeling the sweat pouring out of his face.

"This is the captain, speaking," answered the captain, walking around the corridors. "What do you have to report, lieutenant?"

"I've spotted what appears to be a Class 4 Brighton warship: A Leviathan, on the monitor! I don't know where it came from or how it got there but it's coming towards us!"

"Don't worry, lieutenant, you have my permission to activate the ship's weapon system."

"Yes; sir!"

Elijah kept running, heading to the control room and prepare the ship for battle, pressing the code: 3-2-4-4-9-6, pushing buttons and pulling leavers until the cannons started popping out of the top of the Avenger. Every soldier in the Avenger were preparing for battle, all 600 of them. They positioned themselves in the cannons, operating it from the inside.

Before they could fired, the Leviathan fired first but it wasn't energy beams. It was harpoons attached the titanium chains, the Leviathan started pulling them closer to the ship, dragging them close to the inside. The crew of the Avenger opened fire but their cannons had no effect. It barely made a dent.

"What the hell! Are cannons aren't working!" remarked one of the soldiers.

Next thing you know it, the Avenger was devoured by the Leviathan but the wasn't converted into fuel. Instead, it was dragged into landing bay with the entire crew about to face what was coming to them.

Present day:

Frozen from his recurring memory, Elijah stared, deeply, at the helmet he held in his hands as images of himself covered in blood while being electrocuted and stabbed flashed before his eyes.

His eyes ceased twitching and his face turned from a stoic expression to bitter rage, crushing the helmet with his bare hands. Coming from him was a huge, terrifying roar. So terrifying that even Panthro was a little scared. Elijah crushed the helmet like paper, cutting his hands feeling the blood flow out of the cuts. Elijah soon ran out of the control room as blood dripped out of his hands. He would've gotten Pumyra to bandage his hands but if he did, then he would have to tell her and the others why he went berserk.

Lion-O was holding the crumbled helmet in his paws, feeling the humans' blood on it. He was shocked to see what Elijah did. "Ooookay, that was a little weird," Pumyra commented, standing behind Lion-O has he examined the helmet.

"Something tells me there's more to the Brightons than Elijah had told us," Lion-O knew Elijah wouldn't talk about something like this since it took the human a lot of energy to tell him about Vincent. "And we know he's not going to tell us anything if it's going to be that personal."

"Either that or he's just crazy," Tygra snickered.

Cheetara frowned at her mate and snapped at him for the first time, "Tygra, this is serious! What if something's wrong with him and he won't tell us? We have to find out what's wrong with him." she turned to her king and said with a stoic expression, "What do you think, Lion-O?"

"I agree but we have to let Elijah tell us," said Lion-O.

To be concluded.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7:**

**The Battle**

6-days-later, the ThunderCats continued traveling back to Dog City, believing that someone might have a way to travel up. Elijah meditated but he wasn't meditating in his room. In fact, he was meditating on the hood of the Thundertank. This could've been the most insane thing the human has ever done but that wasn't all. Elijah was meditating while the Thundertank was mobile.

"Is he insane!?" Lion-O exclaimed, observing an image of Elijah on one of the monitors.

"Depends on your definition, Lion-O," Tygra countered, not showing a sign of concern for their human companion. "Besides, it looks like he's enjoying it." That comment caused everyone, even Cheetara, to give Tygra a scornful look.

Lion-O ordered Kat and Cheetara to follow him, saying, "Come on, and let's get Elijah down before something bad happens to him." In which; Cheetara comments while she and the others climbed up the hatch, "For a tough guy, Elijah seems to be troubled; yet he never tells us why."

As they walked out of the hatch and onto the roof of the tank, Wilykat adds while walking towards the divina, "Yeah, and when we do ask him, he either says it's classified or go bonkers." While walking, Lion-O, Cheetara, and Wilykat pressed the claws on their feet into the roof of the tank to prevent them from falling off while it was moving.

"I heard that!" the three were surprised and turned their attention to the human. Elijah could hear them talk about him and continued, "And for your information, I am not 'bonkers' or do I ever go bonkers. The things I do are, merely, on instinct and hard to control." It was surprising how he could talk to the three Thundercats without turning his head to face them.

"Ooookay, but don't you think it's dangerous to meditate while the tank's moving?" inquired Lion-O.

"Yes, but, as a divina, I have face danger and have survived everything fate could throw at me. If I fall off from this militarized vehicle and get crushed by its rails, then that is a sign that it's my time to die."

The words Elijah just said were touching and very philosophical, reminding Lion-O of the words a very dear friend once said. The tank, suddenly, halted, causing Elijah to fly off the hood of the tank but instead of landing on his face, the human somersaulted and landed on his feet, making the young king, the cleric, and the young thief's jaws to drop. It was a good thing their claws kept them from falling off, or else, they would've felt pain from sand in their face, unless it's true that cats can land on their feet.

"Okay, why did we stop," the young king questioned. He noticed that Wilykat and Cheetara didn't answer his question, seeing the shocked expressions on their faces.

It was a ship among ships, a titan among titans. It was soaring above the ground and into the air. Its appearance was frightening and domineering, like if it was designed by thousands of dominatrices. This was the Leviathan, the Brighton warship and conqueror of worlds.

With one look, memories of the past swarm through Elijah's cerebral cortex; horrifying memories he had locked away in the back of his subconscious mind.

Lion-O hopped off the tank and said to Elijah with a scared expression on his face, "Elijah, what the hell is that thing!" Elijah didn't reply. The only response was that Elijah's right eye began to twitch. Soon, he started to calm down and replied in the same stoic, monotonous voice.

"That, my friend, is a Leviathan. A Brighton warship built to devastate worlds and destroy suns. Just one Leviathan could take out an entire armada with just one blast."

"So how do we destroy it?" Cheetara heard the two's conversation and stepped down from the hood of the tank with Kat by her side.

"That, I do not know," Elijah shook his head. "It took 3 battalions of Terran starjets to battle a Leviathan and they barely made a dent."

That didn't sound good. Lion-O looked closer at the sky titan and saw a fleet of lizards flying on both sides of the Leviathan. Things didn't look so well for the Thundercats. Out of the ship's mouth, a fleet of hornets flew out and landed on the ground. Coming out of the hornets were multiple units of brigades, armed to the teeth with guns.

Then, next thing you know it, the other Thundercats jumped out of the Thundertank through the hatch and stood beside their comrades. They watched as Brighton legionaries marched and waited as lizards flew down in their carriers and joined in their ally's' formation. Lion-O watched and exclaimed "Whiskers..." as the two factions worked as allies.

Flying down from the Leviathan was a small ship. When it's bay doors opened, four figures walked out and seemed eager for the battle to begin. One of the figures was Governor Abdul-Muhib, standing and staring at the largeness of his legion. "Look at that, Aelius. I have enough men to take this planet by force and as soon as we deal with these felines, we'll make this planet into another addition to the Imperium."

"But, sir, what about our allies and the creatures of this planet?" standing beside the governor, Aelius asked his superior. "Surely, you're not going to kill all of them?"

"Of course not, we'll keep some of their women to 'entertain' our men, if they are anything like that one, over there," he replied, turning his attention to Cheetara, lecherously, licking his lips under his bandana. The legate didn't seem too happy with the governor's idea but as a loyal legionary, he did not questioned; only obeyed.

Like the Brightons and the lizards, the Thundercats were ready for battle. Lion-O unsheathed the Sword of Omens from his Clawshield and roared "Ho!" as he points his sword to the large army. The other Thundercats, including Elijah, unsheathed their weapons and charged.

With lightning speed, Cheetara ran and took down 50 soldiers while firing their weapons. She halted and swung her bo staff at the soldiers around her. Tygra used his bolo whip and struck a few legionaries and lizards but he was, easily, taken down by, what appeared to be, a Praetorian Guard. The thing was gigantic, even surpassing Panthro's height.

"Use your pistol, Tygra! I tampered with it and increased its power to 20%. That's enough to take them down!"

Taking Elijah's advice, Tygra pulled out his pistol and fired it straight into the Praetorian Guard's chest before he could strike his pole-arm right into his head. The titan fell to the ground with a gaping hole in his chest.

"Thanks!" the one thing Tygra has never said and it was directly to Elijah. Even Tygra was shocked by saying that.

Swinging his nunchucks, Panthro and fought with Pumyra by his side, firing her pellets straight into the legionary's eyes, blinding them as the general took them down. Wilykit and her brother, Kat, took out a handful of pellets and threw it at the soldiers. The pellets acted like smoke bombs, releasing some sort of gas that blinded both the Brightons and the lizards. With all the smoke, the Thunderkittens took advantage and start bringing the soldiers down to the ground.

Elijah ran, slashing his energy blade at the soldiers in his way. He didn't want to fight them, he wanted to fight bigger fish and that would be the governor. Slashing their sword, the lion king and the human captain made their way to the governor's ship.

"So you are the one leading this invasion. Who are you?" Elijah questioned. He looked into the governor's good eye and saw that he has the same eye color as Elijah's. "It...it can't be!" Elijah took a step back.

Lion-O sense the fear and confusion in Elijah, asking, "Elijah, what's wrong?"

"His...His eyes...they're just like mine, which means that you are a divina—a rogue divina! Just, who are you!?"

Behind his bandana, the governor smiled and walked from his ship to Elijah. He retorted, maniacally, "Don't you remember, Elijah. After all, we've been friends since the Academy and before the Xenocide of Voxboros." From hearing that, Elijah's mouth opened wide and couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Vincent!?"

Mentioning that name, the governor removed his bandana, revealing his face to the human. "Hello, brother. It's so good to see you, again." This was a reunion Elijah didn't want to face.

"Wait! That's Vincent!" Lion-O exclaimed but Elijah didn't pay attention and still kept his sight on the governor. Lion-O thought to himself, 'Okay, this is getting weirder.'

"Vincent, how did you escape Guilty Breath?" Elijah asked, knowing that no one could escape that hellhole of a planet.

"Oh, that, well, It's a long story but long story short, the Brightons took it over, killed a few of the guards, and made me the governor of the planet and the star system that it orbits," Vincent explained, nonchalantly, waving his hands flamboyantly. "But, enough about me. How have you been doing?"

"Why are you here, Vincent?"

A sinister grin appeared on his face, Vincent was amused by Elijah's semi-clueless response. "Oh, come on, Elijah, you know why I'm here," Vincent countered. "You have the Orb and I want it!"

"What...what do you want with the orb, Vincent?" inquired Elijah.

"You know why!?" Then, again, Vincent looked at Elijah's facial expression and laughed, maniacally. "Oh...my...god, you don't even know what it does!?"

Feeling embarrassed, Elijah rubbed the back of his head and avoid eye contact, saying, "Well...maybe not" for being a warrior, Elijah feels belittled by his former brother-in-arms.

Vincent began to explain: "You see, Elijah. The Orb is not just any ordinary device. It is a way of restoring Earth. Many have said that when the Orb was built, the inventor downloaded blueprints of a terraforming device with the ability to revive a dead planet. If I give the Orb to the Emperor, then my stature in the Imperium will rise up from governor to second-in-command, then I will rule as emperor!" saying that made Aelius angry, 'How could he formulate such a plan. Is he not loyal to our Emperor?' he thought.

"Now, let's settle this, once and for all," out of Vincent's wrists, sharps, claw-like blades appeared on both sides and with just one click of his neck, a metal mask began to cover Vincent's face, entirely. The mask resembled that of a wolf's face. Now, this was one opponent Lion-O and Elijah will have a difficulty defeating. Besides his armor, Vincent's' style of fighting was similar to a wolf, slashing at Elijah and Lion-O with one claw to the other.

Vincent charged at Lion-O, first; striking him with his left claw. Lion-O blocks the attack with the Sword of Omens and with one strike, Lion-O shatters Vincent's left claw, sending the fragments to pierce into the dirt. Lion-O backed away with Elijah running from behind him, jumping into the air, and slashes Vincent with his energy blade but Vincent blocks Elijah's attack with an energy shield, originating from the two gems attached to his upper arms.

"Such power coming from such an insignificant-looking sword," Vincent backed away, staring at the Sword of Omens while he was amazed its power. "Aelius! Bring me that sword so that I may harness its power!" Aelius obeyed, exclaiming "Affirmative!" and running after the lion king with his wrist blade unsheathed.

Now, it was just Elijah and Vincent, brother against brother. Vincent fought with his right claw, taunting Elijah with such arrogance, "You think you've improved, Elijah!? I have beaten you at everything in the Academy and I will always be superior to you in every way!" His arrogant notions soon shift into insanity as he continued, "For I am the reincarnation of Romulus, son of Mars and first king of Rome!"

"You're deranged!" Elijah roared, deflecting many of Vincent's attacks. Saying that enraged Vincent, increasing his strength to strike, uncontrollably. "And to think a psychopath like you ever became a first lieutenant, or a governor!"

Meanwhile, Lion-O had his hands full fighting the legatus, Aelius. Their blades clash as sparks began to fall to the ground but Aelius was much stronger than Lion-O. pushing him to the ground, Aelius walks up to Lion-O with his wristblade held up in the air, saying, "I am sorry that I must do this, feline humanoid but it is my sworn duty as a legionary that…"

Before he could finish, Cheetara slams her bo staff right into the legate's face, sending him flying to the ground. Cheetara lends Lion-O her hand, helping him get back on his feet. Smiling, Lion-O was happy that Cheetara came to his rescue. Cheetara, also, smiled. Lion-O soon realized and exclaimed, "We have to help Elijah!"

Lifting with every fathom of his strength, Vincent held Elijah over his head with one knee sticking, preparing to snap Elijah's spine in half. "Say hello to the Creator for me! He'll have a nice place for you with the other assholes I've slaughtered!" but before he could slam Elijah's back right into his knee, Lion-O punches him right in the face with the Clawshield, shattering his mask and sending him spinning and as Elijah falls to the ground, he, suddenly, disappears. Only to be caught by the beautiful, Cheetara.

Putting him down, Elijah shakes Cheetara's left hand in gratitude, "You're not much of a lady's man, are you?" Elijah was confused by the comment, questioning with "What do you mean?"

"It's over, Vincent, your invasion has failed and your plan is in shambles," Lion-O retorts, pressing his foot on Vincent's chest and pointing the Sword of Omens to his neck. "If you have the sense of leaving this planet, then I suggest you use it."

Vincent looks around, seeing how his legionaries and the lizard army were, easily, defeated. He couldn't believe that a small band of cats and one human could defeat an entire army. With one growl, he gave the order, "All legionnaires, return to the Leviathan and lets get the hell out of here!"

The Brighton Legionaries ceased what they were doing and retreated to the hornet ships, even carrying their injured but leaving their deceased behind. Slithe, Addicus, and Kaynar retreated with the rest of their army to the Black Pyramid with Slithe muttering, "We better report this to Mumm-Ra. The battle was over and the Thundercats had won, or that's what they believed.

Soon, Lion-O noticed something was off, saying to the others, "Hey, has anyone seen Elijah?"

"I don't know, wasn't he standing next to you?" replied Cheetara, looking around the area.

oooooo

The Leviathan was leaving Third-Earth's orbit. Vincent stood in front of the control panel, tapping his fingers, nonchalantly. He was preparing to press a red button as a crooked grin formed on his face but before he could do it, a static blur appeared behind him, forming together to form a man. Vincent did not turned; only responded.

"Hmm, cloaking technology...and stowing on one of my ships. That's new, even for you, Elijah."

"Well, a soldier has to be prepared for anything when he's on the battlefield. I see you're preparing to repeat history; wiping out the population of Third-Earth with a neutron bomb."

Vincent, still, did not turn. "Tell me, Elijah, why should I let them live even though they humiliated me in combat?"

No emotion formed on his face. Just the same stoic exterior like always, retorting, "Because it is the honorable thing to do."

"Ah, yes, honor. One of the virtues that a warrior, like yourself, follows but for me, honor is for the weak," Vincent countered, smiling as his finger hovered over the button. Elijah then adds, "Then I have no choice but to do this."

Elijah starts pressing a few buttons on his gauntlet, removes it from his wrist and throws it into an opening on the floor, falling straight into the engine room. Vincent turns with the grin on his disappearing, exclaiming, "What did you do!" Then he pounced with his hands around Elijah's neck.

"I activated my gauntlets self-destruct sequence," Elijah replied, trying to pry Vincent's hands from his neck. "In about 25 minutes, this ship will explode and take you and everyone on this ship with it, including me."

Hearing that, Vincent through Elijah 5-feet-away and ran to the control panel, ordering everyone to evacuate the Leviathan. Next thing you know it, every legionary ran to the escape pods and, one by one, every escape pod started flying out. Vincent ran to his seat and by pressing a few buttons on his armrest, his seat sinks into the floor, transforming into an escape pod of his own and flies out of the Leviathan as he started to explode.

oooooo

The Thundercats saw the destruction of the ship, realizing who was responsible for it. "By the gods...no," Lion-O murmured. The others mourned and grieved as they have lost an ally today but, out for the debris was a ball of fire and as the fire diminished, it reveals a silhouette riding on a fragment of the ship like a surfboard.

"Look!" exclaimed Pumyra, pointing at the falling fragment. It was Elijah, covered in shrapnel and was about to make impact. When he fell, he fell hard but he was okay. The Thundercats ran to cheer for their friend with Lion-O patting Elijah on the shoulder, shouting, "That was awesome, Elijah! I can't believe you took out an entire ship!"

"Yeah but I could've done it better," retorted Tygra, showing off his arrogant side. The others looked at him with cold stares. "What, I could!"

5-hours-later, the Thundercats relocated to a jungle, 20-miles-away from Dog City. Standing in front of the Thundertank, the Thundercats said goodbye to Elijah who was preparing to leave the group with the orb in his arms. They supplied him with rations of food, knowing his unfamiliarity of the native flora and fauna.

"Will we ever see you again, Elijah," asked Lion-O. Elijah continued, placing an arm on his right shoulder, "One day, we will cross paths and on that day, I will aid you on your journey while I find a way to return home."

They waved goodbye as Elijah disappears into the jungle and as he disappears, the Thundercats returned to the Thundertank and head to Dog City.

THE END

Note: I know it's not my best but at least it ended, nicely.


End file.
